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Third athlete tests positive at Beijing Winter Olympics test event
China has reported a third Covid-19 case among foreign athletes at preparatory events ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. A foreign athlete participating in the Luge World Cup in Beijing was confirmed on Tuesday as being an asymptomatic case after a routine Covid test.
The athlete has been transferred to an isolation facility for observation, state media reported, quoting Zhao Weidong, an official of the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.
The Luge World Cup is serving as a test event for the 4 February-20 February Beijing Winter Olympics. The Winter Paralympics follow in March.
Reuters remind us that all participants at the Games will be tested daily and spectators from abroad are not being allowed in. Athletes and other Games personnel will also be isolated in “closed loop” bubbles
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2.16am EST02:16
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A steep rise in Covid-19 cases in Europe should serve as a warning that the US could also see significant increases in coronavirus cases this winter, particularly in the nation’s colder regions, scientists say.
“I do expect to see cases increasing – we’ve started to see this in the last week or so,” said Dr David Dowdy, an associate professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. “I don’t think what we’re seeing in Europe means we’re in for a huge surge of serious illness and death as we [saw] here in the US,” last winter.
In the last three weeks, new cases have increased in several cold weather states across New England and the midwest. However, vaccines remain roughly 85% effective at preventing hospitalization and death.
“Even if cases go up this winter, we’re very unlikely to see the overcrowded [intensive care units] and morgues of a year ago,” said Dowdy.
Vaccine-conferred immunity against infection may allow cases to rise, he said, but far fewer people will need hospitalization. The vast majority of people who were hospitalized or died from Covid-19 this summer, more than 90% in one CDC study, were not fully vaccinated.
“People can still get Covid, there can still be breakthrough infections, but the great news is if you have been vaccinated you are very much less likely to be hospitalized or have severe infection,” said Rupali Limaye, an associate scientist at Johns Hopkins University and an expert in vaccine communication.
Read more of Jessica Glenza’s report here: ‘Zero-Covid is not going to happen’: experts predict a steep rise in US cases this winter
1.53am EST01:53
Fears for Australia’s Indigenous communities amid NT Covid outbreak
Indigenous health workers in the Northern Territory town of Katherine say they fear for vulnerable community members – including many living on the streets or in severely overcrowded homes – as authorities scramble to contain a Covid outbreak.
The Northern Territory recorded no new Covid cases on Thursday, but the chief minister, Michael Gunner, says concern remains for “large vulnerable households” in Katherine and the tiny remote community of Robinson River.
Our reporter Ben Smee has the latest.
