by Summary for Monday, 24th January 2022
- Covid restrictions introduced to tackle Omicron are eased in Scotland
- The changes, which take effect this morning, mean nightclubs and large indoor events can return
- But people are still being asked to work from home and take lateral flow tests before meeting others
- In France, adults must show a pass proving they are vaccinated to visit cafes, restaurants and cinemas - negative tests are no longer enough
- The chief executives of the UK's largest airlines have written to the government asking for an end to coronavirus-related travel restrictions
- Ministers are expected to approve a further relaxation of England’s international travel testing rules when they meet today
- The report into Downing Street parties during lockdown is due to be delivered this week
- Welsh care providers say they could employ unvaccinated workers who’ve left their jobs under NHS England's mandatory vaccination policy
Good morning
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic this Monday morning.The main headlines this morning
Here’s a quick look at the main coronavirus headlines this morning:- Scotland's Covid restrictions have been eased to allow the reopening of nightclubs and the return of large indoor events
- However, people are still being asked to work from home and take lateral flow tests before meeting others
- Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces a crucial week for his premiership, ahead of a report over alleged parties at Downing Street during lockdown
- It is thought civil servant Sue Gray will publish her findings this week - although the date is not confirmed
- Many more workers are set to return to the office this week after work-from-home guidance was ditched in England.
- In China, Beijing reported new local Covid cases for the seventh consecutive day as flare-ups persisted ahead of the Winter Olympics Games in February, while four provinces found infections linked to clusters in Beijing.
- The Fengtai district in Beijing, which on Sunday launched blanket testing, said it would start a second district-wide testing programme tomorrow. Outside of Beijing, the provinces of Shandong, Shanxi, Liaoning and Hebei have already found a total of eight infections linked to the capital.
- “The Covid-19 pandemic is now entering its third year and we are at a critical juncture,” the World Health Organization (WHO) director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said. “Conditions are ideal for more variants to emerge,” he warned.
- Dr David Nabarro, the WHO special envoy for Covid-19, has said: “What people are seeing from around the world is this is still a very, very dangerous virus, especially for people who have not been vaccinated and who’ve not been exposed to it before. So quite honestly, we are not saying that this should be considered to be like flu or indeed like anything else. It’s a new virus, and we must go on treating it as though it is full of surprises, very nasty and rather cunning.”
- The Omicron variant has moved the Covid-19 pandemic into a new phase and could bring it to an end in Europe, the WHO Europe director has said. “It’s plausible that the region is moving towards a kind of pandemic endgame,” Hans Kluge told AFP, adding that Omicron could infect 60% of Europeans by March.
- The easing of measures put in place in Scotland in response to Omicron marks a “very significant moment of progress” in tackling the virus, John Swinney has said.
- Only the “findings” of Sue Gray’s report into alleged lockdown-breaking parties at Downing Street will be published, the UK education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, has said, in another apparent step by the government away from promising full transparency with what she uncovers.
- Russia reported a new record number of Covid-19 cases confirmed in the past 24 hours – cases jumped to 65,109, from 63,205 a day earlier.
- Covid cases are rising rapidly among US nursing home residents and staff, causing shortages in admissions, exacerbating bed shortages at hospitals in turn, and in some cases requiring the national guard to be called in.
- Experts in India are warning that the peak of the country’s Omicron wave is probably yet to come. “The number of cases in cities like Mumbai and Pune are the tip of the iceberg,” said the national Covid taskforce’s Dr Subhash Salunke. He expects to see multiple peaks in the next eight to 10 weeks with the variant spreading to semi-urban and rural areas.
- Indonesia opened up two islands close to Singapore to visitors from the city-state today. Singaporeans can visit Batam and Bintan islands providing they are vaccinated against Covid-19, they undergo tests and have insurance coverage, authorities said.
- Hong Kong will take steps from Tuesday to cut the number of civil servants working in their offices, as it battles a spate of Covid-19 infections in the run-up to the busy Lunar New Year holiday.
- In Australia, national disability insurance scheme participants will be able to dip into their core funding to purchase rapid antigen tests for themselves and their support workers, but critics have warned the change is still inadequate.
- New measures are being introduced in New Zealand as coronavirus cases could rise to more than 1,000 a day driven by the more transmissible Omicron variant. Prime minister Jacinda Ardern has postponed her planned wedding in response.
- Nearly half of those who became ill with Covid in the first wave of infections may have long-term and even permanent changes to their sense of smell, according to preliminary research from Sweden.
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