Health News at Your Fingertips

UK prime minister Boris Johnson visited a vaccine centre on Friday as part of a byelection campaign, but then got the name of his candidate, an NHS doctor, wrong.

On a visit to Oswestry in North Shropshire, Johnson saw Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst vaccinating people at a pharmacy. However in comments to the press, he called him “Dr Neil Shastri-Hughes”.

He said: “I think we’ve got a fantastic candidate, Dr Neil Shastri-Hughes, who I’ve just been seen contributing already to the life of the community by vaccinating people, he’s a doctor amongst his many other talents and what he’s also going to do is work very, very hard for the people of North Shropshire.”

October was the deadliest month for Russia during the pandemic, with its government’s statistics agency saying nearly 75,000 people died across the month.

Rosstat said on Friday that 520,000 people have died since Russia recorded its first case. It means the country has the third worst death toll behind the US and Brazil, according to AFP.

Authorities in Moscow have been accused of downplaying the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and Rosstat’s figure – released late on Friday – painted a far darker picture than official figures suggest.

This is Harry Taylor taking you through Covid news for the rest of the night. If you have any comments, tips or suggestions – drop me an email or get in touch via Twitter.

Two hippos in a Belgian zoo have tested positive for Covid-19, their keepers announced Friday, stressing that the giant animals do not appear to be in danger.

The infections at Antwerp Zoo are not the first time that zoo animals have tested positive during the pandemic, but most cases are thought to have been in cats and monkeys.

The building housing Hermien and Imani, a mother and daughter aged 41 and 14, has been closed to the public and their keepers have formed an isolated social bubble.

It’s believed to be the first time such animals have caught the virus.

Hi. That’s all from me, Caroline Davies. Thank you for your time, Handing over now to my colleague Harry Taylor.

Some key developments from today:

• The Omicron variant is likely to be capable of causing a new wave of coronavirus infections that could be even bigger than previous waves, UK government scientists have warned.
• Belgium is to close kindergartens and primary schools a week early for the Christmas holidays.
• Switzerland is tightening restrictions and reinforcing its work from home advice.
• Europe crossed 75 million coronavirus cases on Friday, according to a Reuters tally.
• Wales has reported its first confirmed case of the Omicron variant, which is linked to foreign travel.
• At least 13 people in the Norwegian capital Oslo have been infected with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus following a corporate Christmas party
• New analysis from the UK Health Security Agency (HSA) of 22 Omicron cases confirmed in England by November 30 shows that:
  – 12 of the 22 cases were more than 14 days after receiving at least two doses of vaccine.
• Zimbabwe reported a sharp rise in coronavirus infections, a day after it identified its first case of the new Omicron variant. It announced 1,042 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, compared to just around 20 two weeks ago.
• The Czech health ministry is reportedly preparing a decree making Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for people over 60, as well as workers in critical sectors such as medical staff, police, soldiers and firefighters.
• Canada has discovered a total of 11 cases of the new omicron variant, all of them among travellers who arrived from abroad.
• Germany’s fourth wave of the pandemic could reach a “sad peak” in intensive care units around the country around Christmas, the outgoing health minister, Jens Spahn, has warned as he defended the decision to bar unvaccinated people from many areas of public life.
• Doctors in South Africa said on Friday there had been a spike in hospitalisations among young children after Omicron swept through the country but stressed it was early to know if they were particularly susceptible.
• A Steps concert in Glasgow is among the sources of new Omicron cases in Scotland, first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.
• The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) chief scientist has urged people not panic over the emergence of the Omicron variant and said it was too early to say if COVID-19 vaccines would have to be modified to fight it.
• Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi said some of the four diplomats who first tested positive for the Omicron variant in the country had come from Europe, calling for a reversal of widespread travel bans imposed against southern African countries, Reuters reports.

Israel’s health ministry has confirmed seven cases of the new Omicron variant.

Four of the confirmed cases are unvaccinated individuals who had recently returned from South Africa, AP reports.

The other three include two people who returned from South Africa and from Britain and who had received two doses and a booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The third person returned from Malawi and had been inoculated with the AstraZeneca vaccine. The ministry said it has a “high suspicion” that another 27 identified cases of the coronavirus are also the new variant.

Eight of them are individuals who had either traveled abroad or been in contact with a recent arrival who has tested positive for omicron.

The rest could not be connected to foreign travel — an indication the omicron variant could now be spreading within Israeli towns and cities.

Italy reported 74 coronavirus -related deaths on Friday against 72 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 17,030 from 16,806. Italy has registered 134,077 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth-highest in the world. The country has reported 5.08 million cases to date.

The Conservatives are pressing ahead with their Christmas party in spite of scientists’ fears over the spread of Omicron, as their co-chair told people to “keep calm and carry on” with festivities, Rowena Mason and Matthew Weaver report.

Labour has decided to cancel its Christmas function though it is not urging businesses to do the same.

Despite criticism of No 10 for allegedly holding lockdown-busting parties last Christmas, the Conservative party’s co-chair said on Friday that No 10 and the central party would be carrying on with their functions.

“We obviously wouldn’t set out details of private functions in No 10 but, as I say, there will be festive events in the run-up to Christmas,” said Oliver Dowden.

You can read the full report here:

Europe crossed 75 million coronavirus cases on Friday, according to a Reuters tally.

More than 15 countries in Europe have now reported confirmed cases of the new variant that has rattled financial markets.

Even before the discovery of Omicron, Europe was pandemic’s epicentre with 66 out of every 100 new infections each day coming from European countries, according to a Reuters analysis.

Eastern Europe has 33% of the total reported cases and about 53% of the total reported deaths in Europe. It makes up 39% of the region’s population.

The UK has so far reported the highest total number of coronavirus cases in the region followed by Russia, France and Germany.

The Reuters data shows the pace of the pandemic has picked up speed in the second half of 2021. Europe has reported highest daily average of 359,000 new cases in second half as compared with highest daily cases of about 241,000 a day in the first half of the year.

It took 136 days for the European region to go from 50 million cases to 75 million, compared with 194 days it took to get from 25 to 50 million while the first 25 million cases were reported in 350 days.

The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has said the first confirmed case of the Omicron variant discovered in Wales is associated with foreign travel.

Public Health Wales has said the case was identified in the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board area.

Drakeford told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme: “It is associated with international travel.

“The individual has been identified through our sequencing service and public health officials have now been able to contact them, their immediate contacts, and we are confident that the people who need to be in isolation are now doing that.”

Asked about the health of the affected individual, Drakeford said: “I am told that they are reasonably well and not themselves badly affected by the illness.”

Tunisia reported its first infection from the Omicron variant, the health minister, Ali Mrabet, said on Friday. The infected person was a 23-year-old man from Congo who came to Tunisia from Istanbul airport.