Health News at Your Fingertips

One case of the Omicron coronavirus variant has been detected in Sweden, the Public Health Agency said on Monday.

Reuters reports:

The case was detected in a test taken a little over a week ago from a person who had travelled from South Africa, the agency said in a statement.

US President Joe Biden has said the omicron variant “is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic”.

The best protection is to get vaccinated and receive a booster when eligible, he said, urging all Americans to do so as quickly as possible.

Although no cases of the omicron variant have yet been found in the US, he said: “Sooner or later, we are going to see new cases of this new variant here in the United States and we’re going to have to face this new threat just as we have faced the ones that came before it.”

US President Joe Biden is poised to speak on plans to tackle the threat of the omicron variant.

I’ll keep you updated with key messages, but you can follow the detail on our US as it happens:

Spain has detected its first case of the omicron variant of the coronavirus in a 51-year-old man who arrived from South Africa on Sunday after a layover in Amsterdam, according to Madrid’s regional health authorities.

Reuters reports:

The microbiology unit at Madrid’s Gregorio Maranon hospital, which sequenced and confirmed the new variant, added in a separate tweet that the patient was in fair condition with light symptoms.

Ghana’s government is ordering access to beaches, restaurants, night clubs and stadiums be limited to people who have been vaccinated against Covid, as part of its efforts to fight the spread of the virus, AP reports.

While the Omicron variant has not yet been identified in the west African country, the government health service is “taking steps to protect the country towards the Christmas season,” Ghana’s health service director-general Patrick Kuma-Aboagye said.

At least 5.45 million people of Ghana’s population of 31 million have received at least one vaccine dose. Vaccines being administered in Ghana include AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson.

Ghana’s land borders are currently closed and air travellers are required to have a PCR test within 72 hours of arrival and antigen tests upon arrival.

The country aims to administer 20 million doses of vaccines by the end of 2021, Kuma-Aboagye said in a statement issued on Sunday.

“Among Covid-19 deaths at the Ghana Infectious Diseases Center, 12.5% of the deaths were persons who had been vaccinated (they also had severe underlying medical conditions). The rest, 87.5%, hadn’t been vaccinated,” he said.

Ghana has recorded more than 1,209 deaths and 130,920 cases of Covid-19.

The UK has reported another 42,583 Covid cases and a further 35 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, according to the latest data from the government’s coronavirus dashboard.

That is compared to 37,681 infections and 51 fatalities reported in the 24 hours prior.

The Omicron variant is highly transmissible and requires “urgent action,” G7 health ministers said on Monday, praising South Africa’s “exemplary work” for both detecting the strain and alerting others.

“The global community is faced with the threat of a new, at a first evaluation, highly transmissible variant of Covid-19, which requires urgent action,” the health ministers said in a statement following an emergency meeting, adding they would work together to monitor Omicron.

Underlining the “strategic relevance of ensuring access to vaccines”, they pledged to hold to their donation commitments, as well as to provide support to research and development.

At the same time, they will tackle “vaccine misinformation”, something that has in parts of the world led to resistance against inoculation.

A new meeting will be held in December, they said, committing to work closely together with the World Health Organization and international partners to share information on Omicron.

Scientists in South Africa said they had last week detected the new variant with at least 10 mutations, compared with three for Beta or two for Delta – the variant that hit the global recovery and sent millions worldwide back into lockdown earlier this year.

Omicron has sparked a frenzy of travel restrictions across the world, with a growing list of countries having already imposed travel curbs on southern Africa, including Qatar, the US, the UK, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Netherlands.

With new travel restrictions coming into effect in England from 4am on Tuesday to tackle the spread of the Omicron variant, my colleague Nazia Parveen explains what this means for travellers arriving in the country:

Good afternoon from London. I’m Lucy Campbell, I’ll be bringing you all the latest global developments on the coronavirus pandemic for the next hour while Rachel takes a break. Please feel free to get in touch with me as I work if you have a story or tips to share! Your thoughts are always welcome.

Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_

The JCVI briefing has now wrapped up.

Here’s a reminder of the key points:

• All adults aged 18-39 are now eligible for a booster
• People who are immunosuppressed are eligible for a fourth dose
• A second dose will now be available for children aged 12-15
• Boosters will be given three months after the second dose
• The booster programme is expected to improve the efficacy of the jabs against omicron

Lim said all the JCVI advice given today applies to pregnant women.

He added that “there is a time to move quickly and a time to move more cautiously” on the vaccine programme, and the current moment calls for swifter-decision making.

Raine said a study of the side effects of the vaccine in those aged under 18 had shown there are “no new safety issues”.

She said: “Our message to people aged 12-15 is that it is safe to have a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine and if you’re called to receive your second dose, please go and take that offer.

“It will ensure that you’re further protected from Covid-19.”

The UK’s health secretary, Sajid Javid, is about to speak in the House of Commons. You can follow the discussion on our UK blog:

Lim said that there is evidence that “the vaccines we have at the moment may be less good against omicron than the currently circulating delta variant”, since viruses that develop variants increase “the likelihood of a mismatch”.

One way of reducing this impact is to increase the strength of the immune response provided by the current vaccine. Since evidence suggests that the strongest response comes from the booster, it is expected to provide “extra protection” against omicron.

He added that the pre-booster interval must absolutely not be shorter than three months, which would be “too early”.