Health News at Your Fingertips

The chief medical officer of Moderna has said while Omicron is a “dangerous-looking” variant, he is “optimistic” about fighting it.

Dr Paul Burton said: “I think we have cause to be hopeful, we’ve learnt a lot about this virus in general.

“You know, we’ve learned so much about how to deal with Covid as well, through simple measures, and obviously through vaccines, but until we see how this virus now behaves in populations of older people, people with other comorbidities. We really want to get a handle on exactly how severe the disease could be, I think.”

He added: “This is a dangerous-looking virus, but I think we have many tools in our armamentarium now to get to fight it, so I’m optimistic.”

Dr Burton said researchers will have a better idea about the effectiveness of the current vaccines against Omicron in the “next couple of weeks”, but if a new vaccine is required that could be produced on a large scale by early 2022.

The doctor who discovered the Omicron variant said the UK was “panicking unnecessarily” and that the symptoms are “extremely mild”.

Dr Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association, told The Andrew Marr Show she first encountered the variant in a man in his early 30s who presented with tiredness and a mild headache, but none of the usual coronavirus symptoms.

She said: “What we are seeing clinically in south Africa, and remember I’m at the epicentre – that’s where I’m practising – it’s extremely mild. For us, that’s mild cases.”

When asked if the UK was “panicking unnecessarily”, she said: “I think you already have it there in your country and you’re not knowing it, and I would say, yes, at this stage I would say definitely.

“Two weeks from now maybe we will say something different.”

The UK shadow foreign secretary said Labour supports measures on mask wearing but that her party “desperately” wants to see the Government “tighten up” travel restrictions.

Speaking to Trevor Phillips On Sunday on Sky News, Lisa Nandy said her party will consider the plans in Parliament on Monday but there are “a number of outstanding holes in our defences” that need to be addressed.

Asked if she accepts the Government’s strategy laid out on Saturday, she said: “There is a balance to be struck, I think the Health Secretary is right about that.

“We don’t think the Government has been getting the balance right up to now. That’s why we support the measures to bring in greater use of masks, mandatory masks in some settings, and we’ll be asking questions about whether the scientific basis for that suggests that that needs to go further.

“We desperately want to see them tighten up the travel restrictions. There is a real problem when for 18 months the Government has been warned that there are holes in those defences and still hasn’t taken action to plug what you rightly suggested are just practical measures that could be dealt with in order to stop the new variant spreading around the country.”

The UK health secretary has said he expects the public to comply with the new rules around mask wearing.

Speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sky, Sajid Javid said that following the news of a new variant: “I do think people will take this more seriously.”

He added that people should make plans for Christmas “as normal” amid questions about another lockdown.

Javid said: “I think it’s fair to say that the nature of this pandemic is it would be irresponsible to make guarantees.

“As for Christmas, I think people should continue with their plans as normal for Christmas, I think it’s going to be a great Christmas.”

Austria has detected its first suspected case of the new Omicron coronavirus variant in the Tirol, Reuters reports.

A traveller who returned from South Africa last week tested positive for COVID-19 with indications of the new variant, though confirmation requires further sequencing over the coming days, Tirol authorities said in a statement.

South Africa’s discovery of the variant has sparked global concern, a wave of travel bans or curbs and a sell-off on financial markets on investor fears that it could stall recovery from the pandemic. Cases were detected in several European countries on Saturday, including Italy and Germany.

Austria had already powered down public life last Monday with its fourth national coronavirus lockdown, becoming the first western European country to reimpose the unpopular measure this autumn owing to surging COVID-19 infections.

The UK health secretary has said there is a reason to think that the Omicron variant may make the current vaccines “less effective”.

Sajid Javid said that mandatory mask wearing on public transport and in shops would come into force on Tuesday in a “temporary” measure in response to the new strain.

Speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sky said the government’s approach was “proportionate and balanced”, but said the impact of the variant on vaccines was not yet known.

He said: “There is reason to think that maybe, and I stress the word may, that this variant may turn out to make our vaccines less effective, it may not. We just don’t know enough.

“We will learn to live with this.”

Javid said that even if Omicron makes vaccines less effective it was still expected to make only a “small impact”.

Measures intended to control the spread of the new Omicron coronavirus variant have been described as “a watered-down version of Plan B” by Professor Lawrence Young.

The professor of molecular oncology at the University of Warwick said it is a “shame” the measures introduced by Boris Johnson do not go as far as to advise people to work from home and use vaccine passports.

Speaking to Times Radio, he said: “I think what we’re looking at at the moment is what I call ‘Plan B lite’. It’s a shame that we’re just not going a little bit further.

“That’s not about lockdowns, but it’s about encouraging people to work from home where possible and thinking about how we, you know, dare I say, use some form of vaccine passport just to make sure that we’re all safe.

“So, what we heard yesterday, and what’s likely to happen over the next few weeks, is a watered-down version of Plan B and the hope is that that will be sufficient so we don’t end up in a really difficult situation at Christmas.”

I will be handing over blogging duties very soon. These are the main developments in the pandemic in the past few hours:

• Cases of the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 are continuing to be detected in countries across the world. Australia confirmed two cases on Sunday, joining Britain, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic among others that have declared cases.
• Boris Johnson said arrivals to the UK have to take a PCR test by the second day of their arrival and self-isolate until they have a negative result after the first cases of the new variant were reported in Nottingham and Essex. Face coverings will also become compulsory in shops and on public transport in the UK from next week.
• US government expert Dr Anthony Fauci said he “would not be surprised” if the Omicron variant was already in the US. President Joe Biden has been briefed on the situation.
• Israel is to ban the entry of visitors from all countries due to the Omicron variant. The country will also reintroduce counter-terrorism phone-tracking technology for contact testing in order to contain the spread of the new strain.
• China would face a ‘colossal” outbreak if it opened up society along the lines of the USA, a study by mathematicians has said. It could have 630,000 Covid-19 infections a day if it dropped its zero-tolerance policies, according to researchers at Peking University.
• There was concernabout the Omicron variant in the Netherlands after 61 people tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving on two flights from South Africa on Friday. Further tests were under way to determine if any of them had the Omicron variant.
• Health officials in New South Wales confirmed two cases after people arrived on a flight from southern Africa on Saturday and tested positive to the coronavirus. Some states and territories are tighteniung up their borders to stop any spread, but New South Wales’s opening up plan remains in place.

Amid all the concern about Omicron it seems like a good idea to re-up this explainer about what we know about the new variant and what the risks might be:

The Maldives said it was barring travellers from seven African countries from Sunday over concerns about the new Omicron variant of COVID-19. Travellers will not be allowed into Maldives from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini, the health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Travellers who arrived from these countries over the past two days will have to undergo 14 days of quarantine.

A quarter of people with severely suppressed immunity that leaves them highly vulnerable to Covid have still not had a third vaccination, according to official figures.

The figure emerged just days after NHS England contacted cancer specialists and services across the country asking them to assist in boosting the numbers, with concerns that it means more than 100,000 extremely vulnerable people are yet to have their third jab. A letter from the NHS sent earlier this month said that 30% were still without the third vaccination, which has since fallen to 25%.

You can read Michael Savage’s full story here:

Back to Australia, and health authorities in New South Wales have confirmed that the two overseas travellers that tested positive overnight have been infected with the new Omicron variant.

Both passengers arrived from southern Africa on Saturday evening, and underwent testing last night.

Both cases are asymptomatic and in isolation at special health accommodation, and both are fully vaccinated.

As curbs spread around Europe along with the new variant, Switzerland has widened quarantine requirements to travellers arriving from Britain, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Egypt and Malawi, where cases have been detected, its health ministry said.

On Friday, Switzerland banned direct flights from South Africa and the surrounding region due to the detection of a new COVID-19 variant, while also imposing restrictions on travel from other countries including Hong Kong, Israel and Belgium.

Entry from those countries would only be possible for Swiss citizens or those with a residence permit in Switzerland or the broader Schengen area.

Now, following the detection of new Omicron cases, travellers from Britain, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Egypt and Malawi will need to present a negative COVID-19 test and quarantine for ten days as well, the Federal Office of Public Health said in a tweet.

The Australian Red Cross has sent a large delivery amount of PPE to Papua New Guinea to be distributed to remote hard-to-reach communities as the nation continues to battle coronavirus.

The critical delivery includes:

• 636,000 surgical masks
• 65,000 examination gloves
• 360 infrared thermometers
• 24,000 bottles of hand-sanitizer

PNG has officially confirmed almost 35,000 coronavirus cases and 542 deaths but it is believed many more cases and deaths are going unreported in the nation of nine million where vaccination hesitancy is reported to be high.