Health News at Your Fingertips

Nesrene Malik has filed her latest comment piece for us today, saying that Covid jingoism will not protect the west from the threat of Omicron:

There is something farcical about a political decision-making complex that has learned nothing from the past two years – two years during which the UK has tried to minimise and assume, at almost every turn, that it could escape the fate of other countries. Two years during which a very particular strain of Anglo-American swagger has emerged – one that falsely believes that if we raise our walls high enough, stockpile our vaccines and establish travel apartheid, then the pandemic will be over for us, even if it continues to rage elsewhere.

It does not seem to matter that during these two years, the worst tragedies did not happen abroad, but within our borders. They happened in our care homes, our hospitals, and in the wake of government indecisiveness over locking down (thrice) when it was clear that cases were rising. Imagine how many lives might have been saved had the UK government put the promised “protective ring” around care homes with the deftness and speed it red-listed and categorised other countries. But we are living in a state of inertia, where politicians continually fail to see that the problem is not that the virus and its variants make their way to the UK, but what happens when they do.

Read more here: Nesrene Malik – Covid jingoism will not protect the west from the threat of Omicron

Hello, it is Martin Belam here in London, taking over from Samantha Lock. Here’s an update on the latest Covid figures in the UK.

Over the last seven days there have been 322,042 new coronavirus cases recorded in the UK. Cases have increased by 5.4% week-on-week.

There have been 830 deaths recorded in the last week. Deaths have decreased by 2.1% week-on-week.

Hospital admissions have decreased by 0.8% week-on-week. At the latest count on the UK government’s own dashboard, there were 7,373 people in hospital in total, of whom 895 are in ventilation beds.

Kit Malthouse is the government minister doing the media round this morning. Initially he is being asked on Sky News about new plans for dealing with drugs in England and Wales. I’ll bring you any Covid lines that emerge if he gets asked about that.

South Africa is preparing its hospitals for more admissions, as the Omicron variant pushes the country into a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement on Monday.

Ramaphosa said that Omicron appeared to be dominating new infections in most provinces and urged more people to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

“As the country heads into a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections, we are experiencing a rate of infections that we have not seen since the pandemic started,” he said, adding that over the last week, the number of daily infections has increased five-fold.

While we do not yet know what impact the Omicron variant will have on hospital admissions, we have been preparing hospitals to admit more patients, and we are investigating how we can quickly secure medication for treating Covid-19.

“We will soon be convening a meeting of the National Coronavirus Command Council to review the state of the pandemic. This will enable us to take whatever further measures are needed to keep people safe and healthy,” he added.

If you’ve just joined us here’s a run-down of all the top Covid developments:

• The incoming German government wants to make Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory from 16 March for people working in hospitals, nursing homes and other medical practices, according to a copy of draft legislation seen by Reuters on Sunday.
• Thailand has detected its first case of the Omicron coronavirus variant in a US citizen who had travelled to the country from Spain late last month, a health official said.
• South Korea reported another 4,325 confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours and a further 41 deaths.
• India reported an additional 8,306 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours and a further 211 deaths. The nation’s active caseload currently stands at 98,416 and is the lowest reported in 552 days.
• South Africa reported a daily increase of 11,125 new Covid cases on Sunday, a slight decrease in number on previous days.
• New Zealand purchased 60,000 courses of Pfizer’s oral antiviral medication to treat early infections of Covid-19, subject to Medsafe approval, prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced.
• A probable case of the Omicron variant has been identified in a crew member of a Norwegian Cruise ship that reached New Orleans on Sunday.
• Dr Anthony Fauci said the threat to the US from the Omicron variant remained to be determined – but that signs from South Africa, where the variant emerged, were encouraging.
• The Omicron variant has been found in at least 16 US states so far, with the number of cases “likely to rise”, Dr Rochelle Walensky, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Sunday.

Thailand has detected its first case of the Omicron coronavirus variant in a US citizen who had travelled to the country from Spain late last month, a health official said on Monday, Reuters reports.

The confirmed case in the man, who had arrived on 29 November, makes Thailand the 47th country to have found the new variant, Opas Karnkawinpong, Director-General of the Department of Disease Control, told a news conference.

“This first confirmed case of Omicron variant is a 35-year-old man who is a US citizen who lived in Spain for a year,” Opas said adding that the patient had mild symptom.

Opas said health authorities were conducting further tests of people who had come into contact with the man, but said all contacts so far were low risk.

Thailand banned travellers from eight African countries including Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe at the start of December amid concerns about the Omicron variant.

Opas said authorities had also limited travel from other African countries and were monitoring for more potential cases among international travellers.

A probable case of the Omicron variant has been identified in a crew member of a Norwegian Cruise ship that reached New Orleans on Sunday after detecting Covid-19 among some crew and guests, the Louisiana Department of Health said.

The probable case was found among 10 people who tested positive for the virus on Saturday, the health agency said in a tweet on Sunday.

Another seven cases have since been reported, it added, taking the total number of cases among passengers and crew of Norwegian Breakaway, a cruise ship owned by Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd , to 17.

“At this time, there have been no changes to scheduled future sailings on Norwegian Breakaway,” a spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line said in a statement to Reuters.

The cruise ship departed New Orleans on a week-long cruise on 28 November and had stops in Belize, Honduras and Mexico, the health agency said.

“NCL has been adhering to appropriate quarantine and isolation protocols,” the department said in an earlier tweet.

Australia’s travel ban to several southern African countries due to the outbreak of the Omicron variant has been labelled as discriminatory by a senior diplomat.

South Africa’s high commissioner to Australia, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, said the ban needed to be overturned due to large numbers of Omicron cases being detected in other continents and not just in parts of Africa.

“We believe it is discrimination, because the only difference is these countries [on the travel ban list] are on the African continent,” he told ABC Radio on Monday. “The ban is unfair, there is no evidence the ban works, the World Health Organization confirms that.”

The travel ban to nine southern African nations was announced in the wake of the Omicron variant being detected. It also led to a two-week delay to the entry of visa holders without a medical exemption, which is now set to take place from 15 December.

South Korea has just released its daily Covid numbers with another 4,325 confirmed coronavirus cases recorded in the past 24 hours.

A further 41 deaths were also reported, taking the cumulative nationwide total to 3,893.

Thailand has also reported 4,000 new coronavirus cases and 22 deaths on Monday, taking the nationwide tally to more than 2.1 million cases and 20,966 deaths since the pandemic began.

More than 57% of people in Thailand have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, health ministry data showed.

India has reported an additional 8,306 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, according to recently released figures from the ministry of health. A further 211 deaths were also recorded.

The nation’s active caseload currently stands at 98,416 and is the lowest reported in 552 days.

On Sunday, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, India’s minister for health, announced over 50% of the eligible population had been fully vaccinated.

US president Joe Biden has announced that health insurers in the US must cover the cost of at-home Covid testing from next month.

Private health insurers already cover the cost for PCR tests taken at a doctor’s office but will now cover tests taken at home, too.

For those Americans not covered by private health insurance, free tests will be made available at other locations across the country.

“The bottom line, this winter, you’ll be able to test for free in the comfort of your home and have some peace of mind,” Biden said.

New Zealand has purchased 60,000 courses of Pfizer’s oral antiviral medication to treat early infections of Covid-19, subject to Medsafe approval, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has announced.

“It’s a big step forward for the management of Covid-19 globally. That brings the suite of Covid medicine secured and managed by PHARMAC to six in total, three of which are already in use in our hospitals and the rest of which, subject to Medsafe approval, will arrive in New Zealand early in the new year,” Ardern said.

The prime minister said alongside vaccinations, hospital treatments were already reducing the likelihood of people needing intensive care, with rates in Auckland dropping from 5.7% seen early in the pandemic to 3%.

Health experts will provide a more extensive briefing at the end of the week about the treatments, Ardern said.

The country reported 135 new cases of the Delta variant in the community on Monday, bringing the total in the current outbreak to 9,171.

The nation’s eligible population – 12 years and older – is set to hit the 90% double-vaccinated goal by 15 December.

Germany has reported an additional 27,836 daily Covid cases and 81 deaths, according to recently released figures from the Robert Koch Institute.

The European nation is currently mulling compulsory vaccinations for some health care employees in order to curb the spread of the virus.

Germany has recorded a cumulative total of 103,121 deaths and 6,185,961 confirmed coronavirus cases.