Omicron accounts for nearly 60 percent of new cases in US – latest updates

Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Belgium reverses closing cultural sites decision

A Belgian court has suspended the closure of cultural venues, including theatres, a measure announced last week to stem the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant.

The decision - which will not immediately lead to the reopening of cinemas, themselves subject to further legal challenges - came after protests from the country's hard-hit cultural sector that it was being unfairly singled out.

A ruling from Belgium's highest administrative court said the authorities had not demonstrated "in what way entertainment venues are particularly dangerous places for (people's) health... in that they would spread coronavirus, to the extent necessary to order their closure."

Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced the original measure on December 22 as Belgium saw a sharp increase in the percentage of tests showing the Omicron variant.

"We are currently analysing the court ruling in detail," De Croo's office said in a statement, promising that "all necessary consultations" would rapidly follow.

Omicron accounts for 59% of new cases in US

US government figures have showed that the Omicron variant continues to account for a growing proportion of new coronavirus infections in the country.

Omicron accounted for 59 percent of new cases in the US for the week ending December 25, according to updated data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 23 percent the previous week.

The CDC had said last week that omicron already accounted for a majority of new cases in the country. But the agency said Tuesday it significantly lowered that previous estimate based on additional data it collected. 

Still, it noted that Omicron is accounting for a growing proportion of cases.

The rapid spread comes after the first confirmed case of omicron in the US was identified earlier this month. Studies have provided early hints that it is milder than the delta variant.

Pakistan registers a total of 75 cases of Omicron

Pakistani authorities have registered a total of 75 cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant in various parts of the country.

The announcement by the National Institute of Health on Tuesday comes two weeks after Pakistan confirmed the detection of the first omicron case in the port city of Karachi.

It said those people who tested positive for the new variant were in isolation and efforts were under way to trace their contacts to contain the spread of the new variant.

It said out of 75 total Omicron cases, most were detected in the cities of Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore.

Parts of Spain shut nightlife amid surging cases

Several regions in northern Spain are shutting down nightlife to combat an unprecedented surge in coronavirus infections.

The governments of Asturias and Cantabria are shutting nightclubs down entirely, while Aragon and Navarra are making discos, bars restaurants close their doors just after midnight.

On Tuesday, the government of La Rioja also announced the implementation of vaccine passports in more sectors and that bars, restaurants, and nightclubs must shut down by 1 am.

The new restrictions come as more than one out of every 100 people in Spain have tested positive for coronavirus in the last two weeks. In parts of northern Spain, one out of every 50 people has recently caught the virus.

Since the pandemic began, the infection rate hasn’t been as high in Spain. At the same time, 18 percent of all tests are coming back positive.

At a national level, masks are required both indoors and outdoors. The decisions to implement further restrictions are up to regional governments.

Some governments like Madrid and Castile and Leon, where infection rates are also higher than average, have ruled out implementing more measures ahead of the New Year’s celebrations.

Omicron cluster detected in nursing home in Osaka

Japanese officials in the western city of Osaka have confirmed a cluster of people has the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

The cluster of five people was detected at a nursing home in the city, Kyodo said on Tuesday. They are not the first confirmed cases of Omicron in Japan but Kyodo said it is the country's first suspected cluster.

Bangladesh starts vaccine booster shot drive

Bangladesh has begun administering coronavirus vaccine booster shots as the South Asian country tries to fend off the highly contagious Omicron variant.

The country detected two Omicron cases variant in cricketers who returned home from Zimbabwe this month but has yet to see community transmission, the health ministry says.

The booster shots are being given to frontline workers and people over 60 who have taken the second dose at least six months ago, health officials said.

The booster drive started on Tuesday in the capital, Dhaka, while the government aims to start administering shots outside the capital soon, the officials said.

Bangladesh has administered about 132 million vaccine doses in total, with 27 percent of the population having had two shots.

There have been more than 1.5 million infections and 28,062 coronavirus-related deaths reported in Bangladesh since the pandemic began. 

UK reports record 129,471 new cases

Britain has reported a record 129,471 new cases of Covid-19 and 18 new deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

The previous record high of daily infections was 122,186 on December 24.

The cases data on Tuesday did not include figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland due to differences in reporting practices over the Christmas holiday period.

Portugal's cases hit new highs, hospitals not as strained

Portugal has reported a record 17,172 new coronavirus infections, although the rate was about half the level of the worst surge at the start of the year and hospitalisations were an even smaller fraction of that.

Official data on Tuesday showed the fast-spreading Omicron variant already represented 61.5 percent of all new cases in the country, which has one of the world's highest Covid-19 vaccination rates with around 87 percent of its 10-million population fully inoculated.

The 14-day infection rate was unchanged from Monday at 804 cases per 1 00,000 people, way below a record 1,668 cases on January 31.

In the last 24 hours 19 more people have died of Covid-19, bringing the total to 18,909. On January 28, the day with the worst toll, 303 people died in Portugal.

Malaysia lifts travel ban on 8 African countries, citing wider Omicron spread

Malaysia has lifted a travel ban on eight southern African countries that had first reported the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, citing the greater spread of the variant worldwide, its health minister said.

The eight countries, which include South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi, will remain on a list of nations deemed as high-risk, with travellers from those nations subject to additional restrictions upon arrival, minister Khairy Jamaluddin told reporters. 

First Covid-19 shot recipient in US now a vaccine activist

Since being hailed as the first person in the United States to get a Covid-19 vaccine, New York nurse Sandra Lindsay has become a prominent face in the country's biggest-ever vaccination campaign.

She has been promoting the shots on panels, in Zoom town halls and at other events.

“I encourage people to speak to experts who can answer their questions, to access trusted science. I let them know that it’s OK to ask questions,” said Lindsay, who has spoken at events in the US and Jamaica, where she is from.

China expands lockdowns as virus surges in US, Europe

China has put hundreds of thousands more people under lockdown to try and stamp out a worsening coronavirus outbreak.

Despite facing a much smaller outbreak compared with global virus hotspots, China has not relaxed its "zero Covid" strategy, imposing stay-at-home orders in many parts of the city of Yan'an.

The hundreds of thousands of affected residents there joined the 13 million people in the city of Xi'an, who entered a sixth day of home confinement as China battled its highest daily case numbers in 21 months.

Hong Kong to tighten air crew quarantine rules amid Omicron threat

Hong Kong health authorities said the city would tighten quarantine rules for air cargo crew to tackle the growing threat of the Omicron variant.

The global financial hub has identified several dozen Omicron infections via regular testing during quarantine but neither Omicron, nor other variants, have spread into the community in recent months.

But some of the new infections with Omicron were detected among air crew, who had only been required to quarantine at home, unlike most other people returning to the city, who have to quarantine in hotels.

South Africa study suggests Omicron could displace Delta

Research by South African scientists suggests that Omicron could displace the Delta variant of the coronavirus because infection with the new variant boosts immunity to the older one.

The study only covered a small group of people and has not been peer-reviewed, but it found that people who were infected with Omicron, especially those who were vaccinated, developed enhanced immunity to the Delta variant.

The analysis enrolled 33 vaccinated and unvaccinated people who were infected with the Omicron variant in South Africa.

India boosts arsenal against Covid-19 with Merck pill, two more vaccines

India has approved Merck's Covid-19 pill and two more vaccines for emergency use as the world's second most populous country braces for a possible spike in coronavirus cases.

Asia's third-largest economy has already said it will allow Covid-19 booster shots for some of its population as someIndian states logged an uptick in Omicron cases.

The emergency approvals come at a time measures are being taken to ramp up oxygen supplies and strengthen the country's health infrastructure.

UAE approves Sinopharm’s protein-based vaccine

The United Arab Emirates has approved emergency use of Sinopharm's protein-based Covid-19 vaccine and it will be available to the public as a booster dose starting January 2022, the health ministry said.

The vaccine will be produced and distributed by a joint venture between the UAE's Group 42 and China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a unit of China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), the ministry said in a statement on state media.

The approval came following a UAE-based study that included individuals who were previously vaccinated with two doses of Sinopharm CNBG's inactivated vaccine, the ministry added.

Spain's infection rate soars

Spain's coronavirus infection rate has exceeded 1,000 cases per 100,000 people for the first time, stoked by the fast-spreading Omicron variant, although hospitals were under much less strain than in previous waves of the pandemic.

The rate, measured over the preceding 14 days, rose to 1,206 cases following the Christmas weekend, according to health ministry data.

That compares with 911 reported on Thursday, when it first topped the previous record of 900 cases set in late January.

The tally had not been updated since Thursday and has added 214,619 new cases to the 5,932,626 recorded since the start of the pandemic.

US halves isolation period

The United States has halved the isolation period for asymptomatic Covid cases in a bid to blunt mass Omicron-induced disruption, as infections hit new highs in multiple US states and Europe, wreaking havoc on global air travel.

Some 11,500 flights have been scrapped worldwide since Friday and tens of thousands more delayed, during one of the year's busiest travel periods, with multiple airlines saying spikes in cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant have caused staffing shortages.

Cases in the United States are already on track to reach record highs in January, fueled by large pockets of unvaccinated residents as well as lack of access to quick and easy testing.

Brazil reports 86 Covid-19 deaths

Brazil has registered 86 Covid-19 deaths and 6,840 additional cases, according to data released by the nation's Health Ministry, although the statistics were incomplete as two of Brazil's 27 federative units failed to provide updated information.

The South American country has now registered a total of 618,534 coronavirus deaths and 22,246,276 total confirmed cases.

While Brazil's death toll is second in the world only to the United States, daily death and case numbers have plummeted dramatically in recent months .

Bolsorano won't vaccinate his daughter

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will not vaccinate his 11-year-old daughter against Covid-19, he has said, maintaining the firm anti-vaccine stance that has drawn criticism from public health experts and hit his poll numbers.

The right-wing leader added that the nation's health minister, Marcelo Queiroga, will divulge on January 5 the manner in which Brazil will carry out its coronavirus vaccination campaign for 5 to 11-year-olds, which was approved earlier this month.

Vaccination of children has been a hot topic in Brazil, where Bolsonaro's core supporters have fervently opposed the measure, even as the vast majority of the population supports vaccines.