Coronavirus - 24th December 2021

A recap of the main Covid headlines around the world over the past 24 hours:

• In England around 1.2 million people were infected with Covid last week, or 1 in 45 of the population - a pandemic record. London estimated 1 in 30 people were infected last week.
  
• UK health secretary Sajid Javid says there will be no further announcements on Covid restrictions in England before Christmas.
  
• Germany’s health minister said he expects a surge in coronavirus cases around new year and people will probably need a fourth vaccine shot.
  
• Germany also confirmed the country’s first death due to the Omicron variant.
  
• Greece banned public Christmas and New Year’s Eve festivities and mandated mask-wearing in open spaces. The measures will come into effect on Friday morning.
  
• Italy is planning to tighten restrictions including making mask wearing mandatory outdoors. The country has also banned public New Year’s Eve celebrations.
  
• Malta will ban all events where attendees are standing not seated, except weddings and funerals, from 27 December.
  
• Nightclubs in Scotland are to close from 27 December for three weeks.
  
• Denmark will require foreigners entering the country to provide a negative Covid-19 test from 27 December, regardless of vaccination status.
  
• Montenegro’s president, Milo Djukanović, tested positive for Covid-19 after being in contact with an infected person.
  
• The Spanish region of Catalonia will introduce a night curfew on Thursday.
  

• Emergency Covid testing sites are being set up in hard-hit areas across the US.
  
• The US Supreme court will hold a special session on Biden’s nationwide vaccine-or-testing Covid mandate for large businesses and a separate vaccine requirement for healthcare workers.
  
• The US Food and Drug Administration authorised Merck’s antiviral pill, molnupiravir, for Covid-19, after giving the go-ahead to a similar treatment from Pfizer a day earlier.
  

• China locks down 13 million people in Xi’an after detecting 127 Covid cases. All residents are barred from leaving their houses except to buy living necessities every other day or for emergencies.
  
• Organisers of the Beijing Winter Olympics said they expect a “certain number” of Covid-19 cases in China due to foreigners arriving for the Games.
  
• South Korea set a new record for Covid deaths on Thursday.
  
• Australia reintroduced Covid curbs such as mandated mask wearing indoors, capacity limits and QR code check-ins to cover most of the population on Thursday as daily infections hit a fresh record.
  
• Australia will also shorten the interval for people to receive their booster shots to four months from five from 4 January.
  

• Ecuador is making vaccination against the coronavirus mandatory.
  

• Covid infections are rising again across the six Gulf Arab states after months of low or falling figures.
  

New York City scales back New Year’s Eve celebrations

Ecuador to make Covid vaccination mandatory

The nationwide spike in Omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation. As a result, we’ve unfortunately had to cancel some flights and are notifying impacted customers in advance of them coming to the airport.”

• Boris Johnson has invoked the teaching of Jesus Christ to urge the public to get a Covid booster jab. In a recent video, he celebrated members of the public for “getting jabbed not just for themselves, for ourselves, but for friends and family and everyone we meet … That, after all, is the teaching of Jesus Christ, whose birth is at the heart of this enormous festival – that we should love our neighbours as we love ourselves.”
  
• NHS England has said there are 200,000 vaccination appointments available on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day and urged anybody due a booster to consider coming forward “to get the gift of a jab”.
  
• In England around 1.2 million people were infected with Covid last week, or one in 45 of the population – a pandemic record. London estimated one in 30 people were infected last week.
  
• Airlines in the US and Australia have announced cancellations to hundreds of flights ahead of Christmas.
  
• Australia cuts the Covid booster interval to four months after their second dose, then the wait will be shortened again.
  
• Ecuador has declared Covid vaccination will be mandatory after a marked rise of infections.
  
• New York City will scale back New Year’s Eve celebrations after mayor Bill de Blasio announced new restrictions for the city’s planned event in Times Square.
  
• An Oxford University lab study on AstraZeneca’s vaccine, Vaxzevria, showed that after a three-dose course of the vaccine, neutralising levels against Omicron were broadly similar to those against the Delta variant after two doses.
  
• Italy is planning to tighten restrictions including making mask wearing mandatory outdoors. The country has also banned public New Year’s Eve celebrations.
  
• The Spanish region of Catalonia will introduce a night curfew on Thursday.
  
• Nightclubs in Scotland are to close from 27 December for three weeks.
  
• Denmark will require foreigners entering the country to provide a negative Covid-19 test from 27 December, regardless of vaccination status
  

Summary of recent developments

• Passengers travelling home for Christmas have been hit with disruption worldwide after airline companies cancelled more than 2,000 flights on Friday, according to a flight tracking website FlightAware.
  
• One in 35 people in England had Covid last week, new figures show, with 1.7 million people testing positive across the UK – the highest number on record so far.
  
• South Africans without Covid symptoms will no longer have to test or self-isolate if a contact tests positive, the government announced on Friday.
  
• Additionally, people in South Africa will be offered a booster dose of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine from Friday after the health regulator approved its used for the general public.
  
• France will require passengers to show negative Covid tests to travel to its overseas territories, with the new measure coming into effect on 28 December.
  
• The UK Health Security Agency’s chief has suggested the government might decide on whether further restrictions are needed in England based on Omicron’s wider impact, rather than the variant’s severity alone.
  
• The UK government’s chief scientific adviser has defended Sage against the charges that the group’s modelling was fearmongering, saying it was not their job to “spread gloom”.
  
• Dozens of officials have reportedly been punished over a virus outbreak in the locked-down city of Xi’an, China’s disciplinary body said on Friday, Agence France-Presse reports.
  

France sees record new daily Covid-19 cases