British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits the Health at the Stowe vaccination centre in central London on Dec 13, 2021. (JEREMY SELWYN / POOL / AFP)
ABUJA / BUDAPEST / COPENHAGEN / LONDON / ACCRA / OSLO / JOHANNESBURG / WASHINGTON / DUBLIN / DAKAR / NICOSIA / KINSHASA / BERLIN / ADDIS ABABA / MANAGUA / PARIS – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces a large rebellion among his Conservative lawmakers on Tuesday in a parliamentary vote over new restrictions to try to curb the spread of the new Omicron coronavirus variant.
The measures, including ordering people to work from home, to wear masks in public places and use COVID-19 passes to enter some venues, are expected to be approved by parliament but with Johnson relying on the opposition Labour Party for votes.
It's yet another blow to a prime minister already under pressure over reported parties in his Downing Street office last year when such gatherings were banned, a pricey refurbishment of his apartment and the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Many of his lawmakers say the restrictions are draconian, with several questioning the introduction of vaccination certification, dubbed COVID passports, to enter some venues, such as night clubs.
Others are using the votes as an opportunity to vent their anger at Johnson, believing the man who helped the Conservatives win a large majority at a 2019 election is squandering the party's successes by self-inflicted missteps and gaffes.
But despite the grumblings of discontent, Conservative Party insiders say there is not enough of a groundswell against Johnson to dislodge him yet, with no potential challenger commanding enough support to replace him.
"Boris on a bad day is better than any of the other wannabes on a good day," said one veteran Conservative.
Meanwhile,the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is spreading swiftly and will become the dominant variant in the British capital in the next 48 hours, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said on Monday.
"No variant of COVID-19 has spread this fast," Javid told parliament.
"While Omicron represents over 20 percent of cases in England, we've already seen it rise to over 44 percent in London and we expect it to become the dominant COVID-19 variant in the capital in the next 48 hours."
Meanwhile, the country is poised to announce as soon as Tuesday the removal of all 11 countries from its COVID-19 red list, ending mandatory hotel quarantine for travelers arriving from the riskiest countries.
Ministers believe the move is logical now that Omicron cases in the UK are doubling every two to three days, a person familiar with the matter said.
Medical workers remove the body of a coronavirus patient who had died, past others as they lie on their beds, in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Machakos, Kenya on Aug 20, 2021. (BRIAN INGANGA / AP)
Africa
A surge in new COVID-19 cases in Africa in the past week is causing fewer deaths than previous surges, the World Health Organization said.
Still, more waves could be building up as updated forecasts predict that the continent may not achieve its 70 percent vaccination target until August 2024, the global health body said in a statement on Tuesday.
Africa recorded more than 196,000 new cases in the week ended Dec 12, up from 107,000 in the previous week, the WHO said. Cases are doubling every five days, the shortest period reported this year, while the number of deaths dropped 19 percent, it said.
“We are cautiously optimistic that deaths and severe illness will remain low in the current wave, but slow vaccine rollout in Africa means both will be much higher than they should be,” WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said in the statement.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa reached 8,944,097 as of Monday evening, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.
The agency said the death toll across the continent stands at 224,920 and some 8,215,307 patients have recovered from the disease so far.
South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia and Ethiopia are among the countries with the most cases on the continent, said Africa CDC.
South Africa has recorded the most COVID-19 cases in Africa with over three million cases, followed by the northern African country Morocco with 951,482 cases as of Monday evening, it said.
In terms of the caseload, southern Africa is the most affected region, followed by the northern and eastern parts of the continent, while central Africa is the least affected region, according to the agency.
Brazil
Brazil is now requiring travelers to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 when entering the country, adding to the list of nations adopting new measures amid renewed concerns about new variants of the virus.
ALSO READ: First person dies from Omicron variant in United Kingdom
People enter a COVID-19 rapid testing business in Montreal on Dec 4, 2021. (GRAHAM HUGHES / THE CANADIAN PRESS VIA AP)
Canada
COVID-19 cases in Canada may rapidly rise in the coming days due to community spread of the Omicron variant, mirroring the situation in the country's most populous province of Ontario, Canada's top health official said on Monday.
The surge of COVID-19 cases in Ontario, which accounts for almost 40 percent of Canada's population of 39 million people, has prompted the provincial government to suspend easing of restrictions that were planned to be lifted ahead of the holiday season. read more
The province reported 1,536 cases of COVID-19 on Monday, a more-than 70 percent jump from a week ago, including 80 cases of the Omicron variant, which has spread across over 60 countries since being first detected last month.
Ontario has directed government staff, who started gradually returning to their offices in November, to go back to working from home at least until early-February, CTV news reported Monday.
A medical team performs COVID-19 tests on Central African refugees in Inke camp, northern Democratic Republic of Congo, who are waiting for the repatriation flight to Bangui on Nov 13, 2021. (ALEXIS HUGUET / AFP)
Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo declared Monday the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a statement signed by DRC's health minister Jean-Jacques Bungani Mbanda.
Due to epidemiological reports that attest to an exceptional increase in the circulation of the virus, the DRC is again facing a new wave of the pandemic, said the statement, while confirming the presence of the new variant Omicron.
"The scientific data do confirm the circulation of the Omicron variant on our territory," read the statement, without specifying further details.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the DRC has reported 54,009 confirmed cases to date, including 1,053 deaths.
Cyprus
Cyprus introduced new restrictions in the wake of the Omicron coronavirus variant, Health Minister Michalis Hadjipantelas said on Monday.
Hadjipantelas announced that as of Wednesday, people diagnosed with Omicron variant infection will mandatorily be quarantined in government-controlled institutions.
People considered to be in close contact with Omicron cases will be obliged to be quarantined at home, regardless of vaccination status.
Denmark
Omicron is expected to become the dominant coronavirus variant in Denmark this week, with new daily cases reaching around 10,000, the country's Serum Institute said on Monday.
The institute has detected 3,437 Omicron cases since it was first detected in Denmark on November 22.
A woman waits to receive Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site, in Fontainebleau, south of Paris on Dec 6, 2021. (THIBAULT CAMUS / AP)
France
France is contemplating tightening controls for travellers coming from Britain, where the new, more contagious, Omicron coronavirus variant seems to be rapidly spreading, said French government spokesman Gabriel Attal.
"Regarding Britain, the current rule is to show a negative test less than 48 hours old in order to enter France," Attal told France Info radio on Tuesday.
Attal said France, currently engulfed in a fifth wave of COVID-19 fuelled mainly by the Delta variant, presently had 133 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant.
Despite the threat of this variant, he said there were no plans at this stage to take new restrictive measures to contain the disease, adding that accelerating the COVID vaccine booster jab campaign was the key part of the French government strategy.
The seven-day moving average of daily new cases, which evens out reporting irregularities, stood on Monday at a more than one year high of 48,879. At 14,527, the current number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 has reached a peak since June 5.
France reported on Dec 13 that a further 231 people had died from COVID in hospitals in the last 24 hours, while the number of COVID patients in intensive care units (ICUs) had risen by 150 to stand at 2,752.
An SOS message can be read on the facade of the Ostallgoeu-Kaufbeuren hospitals in Kaufberen, Germany on Dec 5, 2021 to draw attention to the critical situation in the hospitals due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (KARL-JOSEF HILDENBRAND / DPA VIA AP)
Germany
Germany on Monday launched its COVID-19 vaccination campaign for children aged between five and 11 years with pre-existing conditions based on the recommendation of the country's Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO).
This week, low-dose BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines will be distributed to pediatricians and vaccination centers for administration in all federal states, the Ministry of Health (BMG) said.
German pediatricians expect a high uptake of vaccination in the targeted age group. "This was already the case with the vaccination of adolescents," Thomas Fischbach, president of the Professional Association of Pediatricians and Adolescents (BVKJ), told the Rheinische Post newspaper.
According to the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), the country's pediatricians have ordered around 800,000 vaccine doses for children for this week, which are to be delivered by Wednesday at the latest.
This photograph taken on Feb 24, 2021 shows a COVAX tag on a shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX global COVID-19 vaccination program, at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra. (NIPAH DENNIS / AFP)
Ghana
The operator of Ghana's main international airport will fine airlines $3,500 for every passenger they fly in who is not vaccinated against COVID-19 or who tests positive for the coronavirus upon arrival, it said on Monday.
The rule comes into effect on Tuesday at Kotoka International Airport in the capital Accra, Ghana Airports said. It follows a health ministry move last week to require all people entering Ghana to be vaccinated.
The measures are some of the strictest in Africa, where vaccine uptake has been challenged by lack of supply and logistical issues even as the new Omicron variant raises concerns about quicker transmission of the virus.
Ghana's tightening of restrictions comes as the European Investment Bank announced a 75-million-euro ($85 million) investment loan to support its pandemic response – the largest such support for a COVID-19 program in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The authorities launched a massive vaccination drive this month ahead of the enforcement from Jan 22 of a vaccine mandate for targeted groups, including government employees, health workers and students. It plans to recruit more health workers to be able to double daily inoculation from 140,000.
Its health service has recorded 131,412 infections and 1,239 deaths from COVID-19, according to the data.
Hungary
Hungary has detected two cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, its first cases since the variant was discovered, Surgeon General Cecilia Muller said on state television channel M1 on Monday.
Muller also said that most new COVID-19 infections were still caused by the Delta variant in Hungary.
Parents and their children queue in rain outside the Citywest vaccination center, in Dublin on Aug 14, 2021. (DAMIEN STORAN / PA VIA AP)
Ireland
The Omicron variant likely accounts for 11 percent of new COVID-19 cases in Ireland, its health chiefs said on Monday, predicting a very rapid increase in the proportion of Omicron infections in the coming days amid probable widespread community transmission.
Ireland has so far confirmed 18 cases of the variant through whole-genome sequencing out of an average 4,000 COVID-19 cases it has been reporting each day. A trait distinguishing Omicron from the dominant Delta variant suggests a much higher total, said the National Public Health Emergency Team.
"Using this methodology, we estimate that 11 percent of cases are now due to the Omicron variant, an increase from less than 1 percent only one week ago," Ireland's Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan said in a statement.
Just over 90 percent of Ireland's eligible 3.9 million people over the age of 12 have been fully vaccinated – one of the highest rates of protection in Europe – and it has administered a further 1.2 million booster doses.
The government, which has shut nightclubs and placed limits on the capacity and opening hours of bars, restaurants and indoor events, has promised to speed up the booster campaign this week.
It will also cut the gap between completion of the primary schedule of COVID-19 vaccination and a booster dose to three months from five months, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said on Monday.
People wait at an Italian Red Cross anti COVID-19 vaccination hub, in Rome on Nov 29, 2021. (GREGORIO BORGIA / AP)
Italy
Italy will extend its government’s emergency powers until March 31 as the country faces a new rise in COVID-19 cases ahead of the Christmas holiday season.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s cabinet will agree as soon as Tuesday to extend the special powers, which were due to expire at the end of the year, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named as the decision hasn’t been made public.
Under the state of emergency the government can streamline enactment of new legislation, give regions control over setting limits on movement and mandate scientific advisory committee oversight.
Rome has used emergency powers since just after the start of the pandemic, and both of the two governments serving during the emergency have faced periodic opposition to over-centralizing control.
While Italy seen a steady rise in cases, its near-90 percent vaccination level has so far allowed the government to avoid the extreme measures adopted in other European nations, some of which have resorted to new lockdowns or vaccine mandates. New cases in Italy totaled 12,712 on Monday, with 98 fatalities.
The country will also start its vaccination campaign for children aged 5 to 12 starting Wednesday.
Kenya
A Kenyan court has temporarily halted the government's plan to require COVID-19 vaccination for access to public services until a petition challenging it is heard and ruled upon, court documents seen by Reuters showed.
Last month Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe announced all residents would have to show proof of vaccination by Dec 21 to be able access all public services in person.
The requirement affected a range of public services including schools, transport, immigration and other state offices, as well as hotels, bars, restaurants, national parks and wildlife reserves.
On Tuesday however, Antony Mrima, a high court judge in the capital Nairobi, issued a temporary order halting implementation of the mandate pending a legal decision on a petition filed by a Kenyan declaring the move "unconstitutional".
"Yes, Justice Mrima has halted the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination (requirement)," Harrison Kinyanjui, a lawyer for the petitioner, a businessman, told Reuters.
Directives making vaccination mandatory have split public opinion globally. Some politicians and citizens say such measures infringe on personal choice and others say they serve to protect the public.
Rights group Amnesty International has criticized the Kenyan move as unrealistic and flawed.
Because the East African country still has low vaccination rates, Amnesty said making the shots mandatory would deprive millions of people of their ability to earn a livelihood and access vital services.
ALSO READ: WHO: Omicron poses 'very high' risk but data on severity limited
Nicaragua
Nicaragua has received the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines donated by China, following its resumption last week of diplomatic relations with the Asian country.
The cargo arrived Sunday at the Augusto C. Sandino International Airport in Managua, capital of Nicaragua, and was welcomed by a Nicaraguan delegation with a ceremony.
"On behalf of President Daniel Ortega, Vice President Rosario Murillo and the Nicaraguan people, we deeply appreciate this gesture of solidarity, cooperation, friendship and fraternity from the people and government of the People's Republic of China," Laureano Ortega Murillo, advisor to the Nicaraguan president and head of the delegation, said at the ceremony.
A Nigeria civil servant is administered the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, in Abuja, Nigeria on Dec 1, 2021. (GBEMIGA OLAMIKAN / AP)
Nigeria
Nigeria will destroy around one million expired COVID-19 vaccines, Faisal Shuaib, head of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said on Monday, adding his agency was working with drug regulator NAFDAC to set a date for their destruction.
Nigeria's health minister Osagie Ehanire said last week some COVID-19 doses donated by rich Western countries had a remaining shelf life of only weeks, adding to the country's challenges in vaccinating its people.
Fewer than 4 percent of adults in Africa's most populous nation of over 200 million have been fully vaccinated.
Shuaib said the country had been accepting vaccines with short shelf lives from international donor nations in an attempt to use them quickly and provide some level of protection for Nigerian due to vaccine scarcity in the past.
Shuaib said Nigeria will no longer accept vaccines with a short shelf life, citing a presidential committee decision.
Last week, Reuters reported that around one million COVID-19 vaccines were estimated to have expired in Nigeria last month without being used.
Still, the World Health Organization's vaccine director Kate O'Brien said in a briefing on Thursday the proportion of wasted doses is smaller in countries receiving doses through COVAX than in many high-income countries.
People wearing protective face masks are seen inside a tram decorated with Christmas lights in central Oslo on Dec 9, 2021. (ODD ANDERSEN / AFP)
Norway
Norway will further tighten restrictions and speed up vaccination in a bid to limit an expected surge of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said on Monday.
Presenting its fourth round of measures in two weeks, the government announced a ban on serving alcohol in bars and restaurants, a closing of gyms and swimming pools to most users and stricter rules in schools, among other things.
"There is no doubt – the new variant changes the rules. That's why we need to act fast and we need to act again," Stoere told a news conference. "For many this will feel like a lockdown, if not of society then of their lives and of their livelihoods."
To speed up vaccination with booster doses, the government said the armed forces, as well as pharmacies, would assist in the inoculation campaign.
At the same time, quarantines would apply more widely, the government added.
Norway is setting record highs both in terms of new COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, partly due to the spread of Omicron, which is expected to become the dominant variant in the coming days.
Pfizer
Pfizer Inc on Tuesday said final analysis of its antiviral COVID-19 pill still showed near 90 percent efficacy in preventing hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk patients, and recent lab data suggests the drug retains its effectiveness against the fast spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
The US drugmaker last month said the oral medicine was around 89% effective in preventing hospitalizations or deaths when compared to placebo, based on interim results in around 1,200 people. The data disclosed on Tuesday includes an additional 1,000 people.
Nobody in the trial who received the Pfizer treatment died, compared with 12 deaths among placebo recipients.
The Pfizer pills are taken with the older antiviral ritonavir every 12 hours for five days beginning shortly after onset of symptoms. If authorized, the treatment will be sold as Paxlovid.
"It's a stunning outcome," Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten said in an interview.
"We're talking about a staggering number of lives saved and hospitalizations prevented. And of course, if you deploy this quickly after infection, we are likely to reduce transmission dramatically," Dolsten said.
A man gets a dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 at Ngor Clinic in Dakar, Senegal on April 2, 2021. (JOHN WESSELS / AFP)
Scotland
The Scottish government is tightening COVID-19 restrictions as the omicron variant takes over as the dominant strain across the UK.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said new guidelines will urge no more than three households to mix during the Christmas period. There will be a legal requirement for businesses to take more steps to stop transmission, for example screens and social distancing in retail outlets. It will also be a legal duty for employers to allow staff to work from home where possible.
Sturgeon, whose pro-independence Scottish National Party runs the administration in Edinburgh, blamed the UK government for not covering the financial cost of more restrictions. Scotland was unable to all the take measures it deemed necessary because it didn’t have the financial means to cover the cost, she said.
“There are further steps we could and would have considered today – particularly around hospitality – had we the financial ability to do so,” Sturgeon said. “But we don’t.”
The Treasury in London said it would release more money to the semi-autonomous governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in coming days to back the rollout of booster vaccinations and the “wider health response.” It didn’t give details.
Scotland is responsible for its own health policies and it has often foreshadowed wider moves across the UK during the pandemic. The government reiterated it expects omicron to overtake delta within days. Sturgeon has warned of a “tsunami” of infections.
Senegal
At least 200,000 COVID-19 vaccines have expired in Senegal without being used in the past two months and another 200,000 are set to expire at the end of December because demand is too slow, the head of its immunization program said on Monday.
As the pace of supply has picked up in recent weeks some countries have struggled to keep pace. Logistical problems, the short shelf life of vaccines that arrive from donors, and vaccine hesitancy have all kept doses from reaching arms.
"The main problem is vaccine hesitation," said Ousseynou Badiane, who is in charge of Senegal's vaccine rollout. "The number of cases is decreasing. They ask: 'why is it important to get vaccinated if the illness is not there now'?"
The majority of the expired doses were made by AstraZeneca and supplied via COVAX, the dose-sharing facility led by the GAVI vaccine alliance and the WHO, he said.
Senegal has recorded more than 74,000 COVID-19 infections and 1,886 deaths, far below the numbers seen in many nations hit harder by the virus. The pace of infection has dropped off since a third wave in July spurred a spike in vaccine demand. The country occasionally records no new daily cases.
It is currently vaccinating between 1,000 and 2,000 people per day, Badiane told Reuters, down from 15,000 during the summer. At this pace, it cannot use all the vaccines it has.
"We are not optimistic" about using the other 200,000 doses before they expire at the end of the month, he said. "We don't expect any demand increase before then."
Part of the problem is the short shelf life of vaccines that arrive from donors. Senegal refuses to take vaccines with a shelf life shorter than three months, but even that creates difficulties.
Badiane hopes the government can introduce some kind of restrictions on the unvaccinated to drive up inoculation rates, including the use of a health pass as many other countries have done.
South Africa
Leading scientists cautioned that the level of immunity against the coronavirus among South Africa’s population due to earlier infections may be masking the severity of illness caused by the Omicron variant.
Since the discovery of the variant in South Africa and Botswana was announced on Nov 25, hospitalization rates in South Africa have risen, though at a much slower pace than in previous waves, even as cases are rising more rapidly. The number of deaths has also been lower.
A recent seroprevalence survey in Gauteng, the South African province where the Omicron variant was first identified, showed that 72 percent of the population had a previous infection with the coronavirus, said Shabir Madhi, a vaccinologist at the University of the Witwatersrand.
That compares with about 20 percent when the Beta variant emerged a year ago, said Madhi, who led trials of both AstraZeneca Plc’s and Novavax Inc’s shots in South Africa.
“The evolution of the Omicron variant is coming at a very different stage of the pandemic,” Madhi said in an interview with the Global Health Crisis Coordination Center. “That is important to keep at the back of our minds when we see what is unfolding in South Africa and what we might see in other settings, which might have a very different epidemiology.”
Official statistics don’t reflect the extent of the pandemic’s impact on South Africa, with just 3.2 million positive tests and about 90,000 deaths. Excess deaths, a measure of mortality compared with a historical average, show that about 275,000 people may have died from the disease.
The disparity between official statistics and the likely extent of infections is more pronounced in South Africa, though not unique. The US Centers for Disease Control estimates that over the course of the pandemic until September, there were 146.6 million infections and 921,000 deaths as a result of COVID-19. Official statistics show more than 50 million infections and 799,000 deaths.
About 6,000 people are in the hospital in South Africa with COVID-19, about a third of the number at the peak of the second and third waves of infection. Current daily cases are close to record levels.
“That could really be due to the fact that immunity in the country is high either from natural immunity, from past infection, or from vaccinations,” Barry Schoub, chairman of South Africa’s Ministerial Advisory Council on Vaccines, said in an interview with Sky News.
Of South Africa’s 60 million people, about 26 percebt are fully vaccinated. That compares with 70 percent in the UK.
While Omicron has, in early studies, shown that it can evade antibodies produced by vaccinations or previous infections more easily than previous variants, Madhi says immunity may stem from protection by T-Cells, which kill infected cells.
“In South Africa, there is seemingly significant population protection against severe COVID due to underpinning T-cell immunity, despite omicron being antibody evasive,” he said by text message.
Patients wait to receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot at a mobile vaccination station on 59th Street below Central Park on Dec 2, 2021, in New York. (JOHN MINCHILLO / AP)
United States
The total number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 50 million on Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
US COVID-19 case count rose to 50,009,507, with a total of 797,916 deaths, as of 2:22 pm local time (1922 GMT), showed the data.
California topped the state-level caseload list, with 5,169,348 cases. Texas confirmed the second most cases of 4,394,772, followed by Florida with 3,754,042 cases, New York with 2,854,057 cases, and Illinois with more than 1.9 million cases.
Other states with over 1.2 million cases include Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arizona and New Jersey, according to the tally.
Meanwhile. the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday advised Americans against travel to Italy, Greenland and Mauritius, citing COVID-19 concerns.
The CDC now lists 84 destinations at "Level 4: Very High" classification, including nearly all of Europe. The State Department on Monday also added Italy and Mauritius to its "Level Four: Do Not Travel" advisories.
The United States imposed new rules, effective Dec 6, requiring international air travelers arriving in the United States to obtain a negative COVID-19 test within one day of travel.
Under the prior rules, vaccinated international air travelers could present a negative test result obtained within three days of their day of departure.
