Coronavirus - 2nd January 2022

Summary for Sunday, 2nd January

A quick-glance reminder of the main coronavirus developments over the past 24 hours:

• England has recorded its highest day for Covid-cases with 162,572 new infections. It broke the record set on Friday of more than 160,000.
  
  
• Italy has reported another 141,262 Covid cases. More than 1 million people in the country currently have the virus. One of its most famous footballers, Giorgio Chiellini, was among those to have tested positive. The country’s latest death count, 111, was also down compared with Friday’s total of 155.
  
  
• Children aged six and above must wear masks on public transport in France, according to a new government order. The country reported more than 200,000 cases for the fourth day in a row on Saturday, as 219,126 infections were confirmed amid the spread of the Omicron variant. Its health minister announced that the number of days that fully-vaccinated people have to self-isolate was to fall from 10 to seven.
  
  
• The new mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, said the city needed to be resilient against Covid-19 as he was sworn into office. He used his inaugural address to urge the city’s 9 million residents to not let Covid run their lives. “Getting vaccinated is not letting the crisis control you,” Adams said at City Hall.
  
  
• The number of new cases of Covid-19 has quadrupled in four days on the French island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, according to the AFP news agency. Latest figures show they have risen to 2,191 compared with 543 cases over seven days last week.
  
  
• Young adults and teenagers are driving the record numbers of daily Covid-19 cases in the US as they make up a bulk of those to have the Omicron variant.
  
  
• Brazil registered 49 more Covid deaths on Saturday, with another 3,986 new cases recorded. A total of 619,105 people have now died in the South American country, the second highest death toll globally.
  
  
• Dutch police broke up a rave in a disused factory on New Year’s Eve. Several partygoers were arrested by officers, with hundreds involved in the operation in the town of Rijswijk.
  
  

Masks advised for secondary school classrooms in England

Masks are returning to classrooms as Omicron continues to spread across the country ahead of children going back to school next week, which experts say could trigger a huge spike in cases.
The moves come after a health boss warned the “next few days are crucial” in the fight to reduce the impact of the highly transmissible coronavirus variant, as NHS staff work “flat out”.
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi acknowledged the variant “presents challenges”, but said the government is taking steps to “bolster our support for schools” in an effort to minimise disruption when students return to their desks after the Christmas break.
Face coverings will return for secondary school pupils in England’s classrooms – having already been recommended in communal areas for older students and staff.
But the supply of 7,000 new air purifiers for areas of schools where good ventilation is difficult has been branded “completely inadequate” by NEU teaching union joint general secretary Dr Mary Bousted, PA reports.
Bousted said that with “over 300,000 classrooms in England they (the government) have failed to provide an effective solution”.
Education committee chairman Robert Halfon said mask-wearing would have a “significant impact on children’s wellbeing”.
In comments in the Sunday Telegraph, the Tory MP said:

The government needs to supply the evidence. If masks are not required in offices or restaurants, why are we getting young kids to put them on?

France reducing isolation periods

France announced an easing of Covid restrictions from Monday, as governments across the world face tough choices between controlling the virus and keeping economies open.
Coronavirus cases have surged globally in recent weeks, fuelled by the emergence of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, and the pandemic dampened New Year’s celebrations yet again. Europe crossed 100 million known cases on Saturday.
Fully vaccinated people in France who test positive will now only have to isolate for seven days, and can leave quarantine after five days if they show a negative test.
The change in rules should allow a “benefit-risk balance aimed at ensuring the virus is controlled while maintaining socio-economic life”, the French health ministry said.
French authorities followed other countries such as the United States, which this week cut the isolation period to prevent disruptions in industries for lack of staff.
Olivier Veran, the French health minister, told newspaper le Journal du Dimanche published on Sunday:

This isolation could be lifted after five days in case of a negative test. Those who are not vaccinated will have to self-isolate for 10 days, with a possibility to come out of isolation after seven days under the same terms.

How much longer can China keep up its zero-Covid strategy?

Emma Graham-Harrison - The Guardian
Desperate residents in China’s western Xi’an city are running out of food after they were barred from grocery shopping in a fierce lockdown. In the southern province of Guangxi, people who broke Covid laws were recently publicly shamed by being paraded through the streets in Hazmat suits with placards round their necks.
The rest of the world is learning, slowly and with some difficulty, to live with Covid-19, but in China, authorities are doubling down on their “zero-Covid” policy: trying to stamp out the disease whenever it appears, and at any cost. A single case in a border town led to 200,000 people being locked down late last month.
A key aspect of the policy is border closures. Few people are allowed in or out of China, and those who do enter the country face up three weeks of government-enforced quarantine. Some other countries locked the world out for over a year in a bid to lock out the pandemic. But in 2022, Beijing is treading an increasingly solitary path.
A combination of mass vaccination, social pressure and highly transmissible new variants has persuaded other once “zero-Covid” countries – including Australia, New Zealand and Singapore – to begin slowly opening up again to the world.
Inside China, some senior scientists and officials have also taken the political risk of calling for similar reopening, in recognition of a world where it seems Covid will become endemic. Gao Fu, head of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, suggested recently that the country could be ready when vaccination rates pass 85%, perhaps early in 2022.
Others have joined scientists abroad, warning that even Beijing’s autocratic powers and popular support for lockdowns and other control measures may not be enough to keep highly transmissible new variants out.
“China will have great difficulty with Omicron and a zero Covid policy,” Tulio Oliveira, director of South Africa’s Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation, said on Twitter. He is part of the team that first alerted the World Health Organisation to the new variant.

They may need to join the rest of the world with mitigation strategies. China should not punish its public health officials or citizens or foreigns because (of) a more transmissible variant.

New Covid-19 cases in the locked-down Chinese city of Xi’an fell to their lowest in a week, health officials said Sunday, as residents face their eleventh day under strict home confinement.
China has followed a “zero Covid” approach involving tight border restrictions and swift, targeted lockdowns since the virus first surfaced in a central city in late 2019 – but this strategy has been put under pressure in recent weeks with a number of local outbreaks and cases remaining stubbornly high, AFP reports.
There were 122 fresh infections reported Sunday in the historic northern city - the lowest since December 25, and down from 174 on Saturday.
Zhang Canyou, from China’s disease control agency, told state broadcaster CCTV that after several rounds of testing in Xi’an and the impact of the lockdown, they had started to see “some positive changes”.

We will also make some adjustments to the prevention and control measures in a timely way.

However, there are 16 patients in a “severe” condition, according to the National Health Commission.
While low compared to numbers elsewhere, new infections in recent days have reached a high not seen in China since March 2020.
Since December 9 there have been more than 1,500 cases of the Delta strain reported in Xi’an, and health officials said at a press conference on Saturday that two patients are in a critical condition.
China has not recorded any deaths from Covid-19 since January 2021.

Israel says it is possible it could reach herd immunity

A surge of Omicron infections could see Israel reaching herd immunity, the country’s top health official said on Sunday as daily cases continued to climb.
Worldwide infections have hit a record high, with an average of just over a million cases detected a day between 24 and 30 December, according to Reuters data. Deaths, however, have not risen in kind, bringing hope the new variant is less lethal.
Until late December, Israel managed to stave off Omicron to some degree but with infection rates now gaining pace, daily cases are expected to reach record highs in the coming three weeks. This could result in herd immunity, said director-general of the health ministry, Nachman Ash.
Ash told 103FM Radio:

The cost will be a great many infections. The numbers will have to be very high in order to reach herd immunity. This is possible but we don’t want to reach it by means of infections, we want it to happen as a result of many people vaccinating.

Herd immunity is the point at which a population is protected from a virus, either through vaccination or by people having developed antibodies by contracting the disease.
Around 60% of Israel’s 9.4 million population are fully vaccinated – almost all with Pfizer /BioNTech’S vaccine – according to the health ministry, which means they have either received three doses or have had their second dose recently. But hundreds of thousands of those eligible for a third inoculation have so far not taken it.
Around 1.3 million coronavirus cases have been documented in Israel since the start of the pandemic. But between two to four million people may well be infected by the end of January when the Omicron wave could subside, according to Eran Segal, data scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science and an adviser to the government.
Head of the health ministry’s coronavirus taskforce, Salman Zarka, said herd immunity was far from guaranteed.
Zarka told Ynet TV:

We have to be very cautious with this particularly in light of our experience over the past two years in which we saw people who have recovered (from coronavirus) be re-infected.

What the government could be planning regarding remote learning

Bethan Staton, a reporter for the Financial Times, reports:

https://twitter.com/bethanstaton/status/1477591114555301888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1477591114555301888%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2Flive%2F2022%2Fjan%2F02%2Fcovid-live-news-omicron-masks-in-england-schools-france-restrictions-coronavirus%3FfilterKeyEvents%3Dfalsepage%3Dwith3Ablock-61d1915c8f08b7d6158b9d6c

Teens and young adults driving record Covid cases in US, health officials say
Victoria Bekiempis - The Guardian
As the US is seeing record numbers of daily coronavirus cases driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, public health authorities nationwide have said that teens and younger adults are helping fuel this increase.
The uptick in Covid-19 among the under-50s coincides with a surge in cases among young children – and a troubling increase in paediatric hospitalisations.
The US seven-day average for paediatric hospitalisations increased 58%, to 334, between 21 December and 27 December. The increase in hospitalisations for all age groups was about 19%. Less than 25% of US children are vaccinated, Reuters reported.
In Los Angeles county, adults between 18 and 49 accounted for more than 70% of the coronavirus cases recorded between 22 December and 28 December, according to the Los Angeles Times. The case rate per 100,000 people has surged most quickly in that age range.
The county saw more than 27,000 new cases on 31 December, dramatically surpassing the winter 2021 daily case average of 16,000. About 25% of all coronaviruses tests in Los Angeles county are positive, according to the newspaper.
Broken down further, data show that infection rates in persons from 18 to 29 are more than eight times higher than one month ago. With adults in their 30s and 40s, there are six times as many cases.
Barbara Ferrer, the county’s public health director, said:

Many of the people in this age group are important members of our labor force … and these are also folks that are very likely to be out and about for recreation.
Often this age group doesn’t experience the worst consequences of increased transmission and sometimes that’s made it more difficult for individuals to stay attentive to the need to be vigilant about adhering to all of the public health safety measures.

Unvaccinated US travellers added to French quarantine list

France has put the United States on its Covid-19 travel “red list”, meaning unvaccinated people coming into the country will have to quarantine for 10 days.
The rules will not change for fully vaccinated people coming into France from the US, they still have to show proof of a negative test before boarding their flight.
The move puts the US, where new infections are topping 300,000 a day due to the Omicron variant, on the same list as countries such as Russia, Afghanistan, Belarus and Serbia.
France is also grappling with record levels of new infections, with 200,000 cases reported daily over the last four days.

‘There is no money left’: Covid crisis leaves Sri Lanka on brink of bankruptcy

Minoli Soysa and Hannah Ellis-Petersen - The Guardian
Sri Lanka is facing a deepening financial and humanitarian crisis with fears it could go bankrupt in 2022 as inflation rises to record levels, food prices rocket and its coffers run dry.
The meltdown faced by the government, led by the strongman president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is in part caused by the immediate impact of the Covid crisis and the loss of tourism but is compounded by high government spending and tax cuts eroding state revenues, vast debt repayments to China and foreign exchange reserves at their lowest levels in a decade. Inflation has meanwhile been spurred by the government printing money to pay off domestic loans and foreign bonds.
The World Bank estimates 500,000 people have fallen below the poverty line since the beginning of the pandemic, the equivalent of five years’ progress in fighting poverty.
Inflation hit a record high of 11.1% in November and escalating prices have left those who were previously well off struggling to feed their families, while basic goods are now unaffordable for many. After Rajapaksa declared Sri Lanka to be in an economic emergency, the military was given power to ensure essential items, including rice and sugar, were sold at set government prices – but it has done little to ease people’s woes.

New infections in Saudi Arabia at highest level since August

Daily coronavirus cases in Saudi Arabia have climbed above 1,000 for the first time since August, while daily infections in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) haven crossed the 2,500-level.
Authorities in the two Gulf Arab states did not break down the cases by Covid-19 variant. Both countries confirmed their first known case of the Omicron variant in early December.
Saudi Arabia, the largest Gulf state with a population of around 30 million, on Sunday registered 1,024 new coronavirus infections and one death. Daily cases had fallen below 100 in September.
Neighbouring UAE, a tourism and commercial hub now marking its peak tourism season and hosting a world fair, announced 2,600 new coronavirus cases and three deaths.
Daily infections in the UAE rose above 2,000 on Dec. 29, after having fallen below 100 in October.
The UAE said on Saturday it would ban non-vaccinated citizens from traveling abroad from Jan. 10 and that fully vaccinated citizens would also require a booster shot to be eligible to travel.
The latest daily Covid figures are still below a peak of nearly 4,000 hit in the UAE last January when visitors flocked to the country, and a record of over 4,700 in Saudi Arabia in June 2020, according to Reuters data.

Kuwaiti embassy in UK encourages its citizens to leave the country

The Kuwaiti embassy in the UK has encouraged its citizens to leave the country due to a “significant and unprecedented” increase in Omicron cases there, the Gulf country’s state news agency reported on Sunday.
The daily number of new COVID-19 infections across Britain rose to a record 189,846 on Friday, far higher than during previous peaks.

More than 3,000 flights cancelled around the world on Sunday

More than 3,000 flights were cancelled around the world on Sunday, more than half of them US flights, adding to a week of travel disruption due to adverse weather and the surge in coronavirus cases caused by the Omicron variant.
Over 3,300 flights had been cancelled by noon GMT on Sunday, including over 1,900 entering, departing from or within the US, according to a running tally on the tracking website FlightAware.com.

137,583 new cases of Covid-19 and 73 deaths reported in England and Wales
A further 137,583 new cases of Covid-19 in England and Wales were reported today, compared with 162,572 cases in England on Saturday, according to government data.
There were 73 deaths within 28 days of a positive test in England and Wales, a drop on the 154 reported in England on Saturday.
The government said data for Scotland and Northern Ireland would be updated after the New Year holiday.

France reports record seven-day average for new Covid cases
France has reported 58,432 new confirmed coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period, a figure much lower than the previous four days when daily additional infections were over 200,000, reports Reuters.
However, the seven-day moving average of new cases in France, which smoothes out daily reporting irregularities, reached a new all-time high of 162,041 – jumping almost fivefold in a month. It says on days following a public holiday – as New Year’s Day was – new reported cases tend to dip, so the sharp drop does not necessarily indicate a change of trend.

Ireland in stronger position to tackle Covid-19 despite 'concerning' case numbers
Gerard Donaghy - Irish Post
Ireland enters 2022 in a stronger position to tackle Covid-19, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said, despite case numbers being 'high and concerning'.
Latest figures show there are a further 17,071 confirmed cases of Covid-19, with 717 patients in hospital, of which 87 are in ICU.
Today's case figures are a significant decrease on Saturday's 23,281 cases, although mark an increase in hospitalisations, with 656 in hospital and 85 in ICU on Saturday.
Donnelly praised the country's vaccine roll-out in helping to tackle Covid-19, with today marking the opening of boosters to anyone aged 16 or over.
"2021 was a long and tough year for so many," said Donnelly.
"We begin 2022 in a stronger position thanks to vaccines and effective new treatments.
"Our case numbers are high and concerning, but good to see the rate of hospitalisations has fallen dramatically compared to this time last year.
"Our vaccination rollout has been superb. We have the 2nd highest uptake of booster vaccines in the EU.
"This is something everyone should be really proud of — an incredible national effort. Studies show you're up to 8 times more likely to end up in hospital if unvaccinated.
"Our death rate from Covid remains one of the lowest in the EU.
"While we have lost friends, family and loved ones to this terrible virus, many more would have suffered without your incredible efforts and sacrifices."
Donnelly added that 2021 saw the biggest increase in staff numbers since the HSE was established, with 131,000 staff now working in the service.
He also revealed that 800 permanent hospital beds were opened last year, while ICU bed numbers from 355 to 291.
More ICU beds will open this year, he added, with the ultimate aim being to increase critical care capacity to 446 beds.

While Donnelly said hospitalisations have 'fallen dramatically' compared to this time last year, the government's Covid-19 Data Hub suggests a like-for-like increase.
The hub says there were 581 Covid-19 patients in hospital on January 2, 2021, with 56 people in ICU.
Cases continued to rise during January 2021, peaking at 2.020 hospitalisations on January 18 and 221 in ICU on January 24.
Both figures were also the highest numbers respectively for the calendar year.
Like-for-like hospitalisation and ICU numbers for December 2021 were also higher than for December 2020.
The HSE does, however, stress that daily numbers are based on positive SARS-CoV-2 results uploaded to the HSE Covid-19 Care Tracker the preceding day and thus are provisional.
Like Donnelly, HSE chief Paul Reid was also cautiously optimistic about the future.
Taking to Twitter, he wrote: "Early days yet, but let's all hope & plan that with the great efforts of the public, our testers & tracers, vaccination teams & all healthcare professionals will mean that at some stage we can all look back on #Omicron.
"We're not there yet but these actions will benefit."

Anti-lockdown demonstrations in The Netherlands
Riot police with batons and shields tried to break up a crowd of several thousand who had gathered in the Dutch capital on Sunday to protest against Covid-19 lockdown measures and vaccinations.

Several thousands of people defied a ban on Sunday to gather and protest the Dutch government’s coronavirus lockdown measures, in Amsterdam. Photograph: Peter de Jong/AP

Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema issued an emergency ordinance, empowering police to clear the central Museum Square, after the protesters violated a ban on holding public gatherings during the latest wave of coronavirus infections, Reuters reports.
The protesters, who mostly did not wear masks and broke social distancing rules, also ignored an order not to hold a march and walked along a main thoroughfare, playing music and holding yellow umbrellas in a sign of opposition to the government measures.

Demonstrators gather at Museumplein to protest against the covid-measures in Amsterdam. Photograph: Sanne Derks/Getty Images

The Netherlands went into a sudden lockdown on 19 December, with the government ordering the closure of all but essential stores, as well as restaurants, hairdressers, gyms, museums and other public places until at least 14 January.
Public gatherings of more than two people are prohibited under the current set of restrictions.

Police clash with demonstrators as thousands of people defied a ban on Sunday to gather and protest the Dutch government’s coronavirus lockdown measures, in Amsterdam. Photograph: Peter de Jong/AP

Like other European countries, the Netherlands imposed the measures in an effort to prevent a fresh wave of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus that could overwhelm an already strained healthcare system.

Bulgaria reports its first twelve cases of the Omicron variant
Bulgaria has detected its first 12 cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the country’s chief health inspector, Angel Kunchev, has said.
“We have confirmed the new variant in samples from 12 people,” Kunchev told reporters.
“From now on we can expect a faster spread of the infection. Omicron will gradually become the dominant variant as it has already happened in many European Union countries.”
Kunchev said the infected nine men and three women, mainly from the capital Sofia, were experiencing mild symptoms and none was hospitalised.
Bulgaria’s health authorities will meet on Tuesday to discuss whether additional measures would be needed to curb the spread of the new variant.
Kunchev said Bulgaria has already taken the most important step, offering a one-off cash bonus of 75 levs ($43.62) to pensioners who opt to get vaccinated or get a booster dose in the EU’s least vaccinated member state.
Bulgaria has also shortened the period for a booster to three months after a full vaccination cycle.
“Neither of the people infected with Omicron has had a booster dose. We continue to think that a full inoculation plus a booster provides a high level of protection,” Kunchev said.
On Sunday, Bulgaria registered some 1,076 new cases.

South Africa has recorded 4,379 new identified coronavirus cases with 30 deaths.


Israel to offer fourth dose of Covid-19 vaccine for the over-60s and medical staff
Israel will offer a fourth dose of Covid-19 vaccine to people over 60 and to medical staff, Reuters reports.
Naftali Bennett, the prime minister, made the announcement on Sunday amid a surge in Omicron variant infections, saying the country’s top medical officer had approved the shot.
“The Omicron wave is here and we must protect ourselves,” Bennett told a news conference.
Israel on Thursday authorised a fourth Covid vaccine for those with weakened immunity, becoming one of the first countries to do so.

Update to the report on the anti-Covid-19 lockdown protests in Amsterdam
At least 30 people were detained after scuffles, during which four officers were injured, police said in a statement.
Reuters reports:

Public gatherings of more than two people are prohibited under restrictions imposed by the Netherlands in an effort to prevent the Omicron variant of the coronavirus overwhelming an already strained healthcare system.
The protesters, who mostly did not wear masks or abide by social distancing rules, ignored an order not to hold a march and walked along a main thoroughfare, playing music and holding yellow umbrellas in a sign of opposition to government measures.
The Netherlands went into a sudden lockdown on December 19, with the government ordering the closure of all but essential stores, as well as restaurants, hairdressers, gyms, museums and other public places until at least January 14.

Israel reports 4,206 new daily Covid infections marking a 195 per cent increase over the past week
Israel has reported 4,206 new Covid infections over the past 24 hours, authorities said.
This marks a 195 per cent increase over the past week, Agence France-Presse reports.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned that cases could surge to around “50,000 cases per day soon”, urging all adults and children to get vaccinated.
More than four million people out of Israel’s population of 9.2 million have received three shots of the coronavirus vaccine.
A total of almost 1.4 million cases of Covid infection, including 8,244 deaths, have been officially recorded in Israel.

Brazil registered 28 Covid-19 deaths on Sunday and 1,721 additional cases, according to data released by the nation’s Health Ministry, reports Reuters.
It has now recorded a total of 619,133 coronavirus deaths and 22,293,228 confirmed cases.
The numbers do not reflect data from six states and the federal district on Sunday.
Following a hacker attack on December 10, some of the health ministry’s databases have been offline which has affected the monitoring of the pandemic.
In absolute terms, Brazil has the world’s third-highest death toll behind the United States and Russia, and is third in the number of people infected after the United States and India.