Health News at Your Fingertips

• Nigeria had confirmed its first cases of the Omicron variant, including one from a sample back in October. “Retrospective sequencing of the previously confirmed cases among travelers to Nigeria also identified the omicron variant among the sample collected in October 2021,” Nigeria CDC director general Dr Ifedayo Adetifa said.
• Germany’s state infectious disease agency reported 67,186 new cases on Wednesday, up 302 from a week ago, and 446 deaths. That is the country’s highest daily deaths figure since 18 February.
• Gernot Marx, the president of the DIVI association for intensive care medicine, warned that Germany could still have 6,000 people in intensive care by Christmas regardless of what measures are now decided by politicians.
• The European Union-wide rollout of Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine version for five- to 11-year-old children will begin 13 December, one week earlier than previously planned, Germany’s health ministry said.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) has said those not fully vaccinated who are vulnerable to Covid-19, including over-60s, should delay travel to areas with community transmission, as more countries imposed curbs to combat the spread of the new Omicron variant.
• WHO has also agreed to launch negotiations on an international treaty to prevent and control future pandemics. A progress report will be presented at the regular World Health Assembly annual gathering in 2023.
• Saudi Arabia has reported its first Omicron case, as has Brazil. They are the first recorded cases in the Middle East and in Latin America respectively.
• Prof Andrew Hayward, from University College London and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) in the UK, said there was a need to keep an eye on Omicron growth as “small numbers can turn to big numbers quite quickly”.
• Amid accusations that Prime Minister Boris Johnson broke Covid rules over Christmas parties last year, the UK’s health secretary Sajid Javid has said people should take a lateral flow test before going to Christmas parties this year, but said “People should continue to behave in the way they were planning to behave over Christmas. I don’t think there’s any need to change those plans.”
• The US is set to toughen testing requirement for all international travellers, including returning Americans and both vaccinated and unvaccinated people
• Some US Republican states are expanding unemployment benefits for employees who have been fired or quit over vaccine mandates, a move critics say in effect pays people for not getting vaccinated.
• Slovenia has halted use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine after experts confirmed a death was related to an extremely rare blood-clotting condition.
• In contrast to travel restrictions being raised elsewhere, Fiji has reopened its border to international travellers for the first time in nearly two years. The Pacific Island country is seeking to revive its dominant tourism industry. Malaysia and Uzbekistan are among countries to add new travel restrictions over Omicron today. France has decided to extend until at least Saturday its suspension of flights from southern African countries.

It is a very busy day of coronavirus news again today. If you are after UK news, then Andrew Sparrow has a combined politics and live blog today, which will take in PMQs, you can find that here:

Rachel Hall will be here shortly to take over from me, and she will continue to bring you the latest developments with Covid from around the world.

A quick snap from Reuters here that Uzbekistan has said it would suspend flights with Hong Kong, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini, Tanzania and South Africa from 3 December to curb the spread of Omicron.

The Central Asian nation’s health ministry said residents of those nations and people who have recently visited them would be unable to enter Uzbekistan, while those arriving from Egypt, Israel, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Czech Republic would be quarantined for 10 days.

Russia on Wednesday confirmed 32,837 Covid-19 infections and 1,226 deaths. The figures remain on a gentle downward trajectory, but have not fallen to the levels authorities must have hoped for when they ordered a firebreak of a week’s paid leave for non-essential workers at the start of November to break the transmission chain in the country.

Yesterday, in light of the emergence of the Omicron variant, Anna Popova, the head of Russia’s consumer and health department advised Russians not to travel abroad for New Year holidays. President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that the government will create an updated action plan to deal with Omicron next week.

The European Union-wide rollout of Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine version for five- to 11-year-old children will begin 13 December, one week earlier than previously planned, Germany’s health ministry said.

Reuters report Germany is due to receive 2.4m doses for use as a two-dose regimen, the ministry said, adding it has commitment on the new date from the manufacturer.

“Given the current pandemic situation, this is good news for parents and children. Many are awaiting this eagerly,” acting health minister Jens Spahn said in the statement.

A BioNTech spokesperson confirmed the earlier launch, adding it was contingent on the production batch passing quality control checks early next week.

The rollout will be brought forward without an impact on agreed delivery volumes thanks to “a massive effort”, the company added.

There is more detail on the World Health Organization (WHO) agreement from Agence France-Presse. It reports that the 194 countries have agreed to establish an intergovernmental negotiating body “to draft and negotiate a WHO convention, agreement or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response”.

The body’s first meeting must be no later than 1 March next year to elect two co-chairs and four vice-chairs.

A progress report will be presented at the regular World Health Assembly annual gathering in 2023, with the final outcome presented for consideration at the 2024 WHA.

“We need a game-change in our global health architecture, so that the international community can respond to future pandemics collectively, effectively and immediately,” said Lotte Knudsen, the EU’s ambassador in Geneva, in a statement.

“Today’s decision of the World Health Assembly will therefore make history. The situation and our citizens demand it: we need to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response if we do not want to find ourselves in a similar situation in the future.”

An update from Geneva that the World Health Organization (WHO) has agreed to launch negotiations on an international treaty to prevent and control future pandemics.

Reuters reports the decision was adopted by consensus at WHO’s special ministerial assembly of its 194 member states, drawing applause from delegations at the end of a three-day meeting.

“The text before us is the product of extensive discussions, of frank exchanges and of compromises,” said Australia’s ambassador Sally Mansfield, who co-chaired the working group. “Let us move forward together in solidarity to do the hard work that we have ahead of us.”

Andrew Sparrow has launched our combined UK Covid and politics live blog for today. You can follow the latest news there.

I will be continuing here with the latest coronavirus developments from around the world.

The Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s state infectious disease agency, reported 67,186 new cases on Wednesday, up 302 from a week ago, and 446 deaths. That deaths figure is the country’s highest daily figure since 18 February.

Gernot Marx, the president of the DIVI association for intensive care medicine, warned that the country could still have 6,000 people in intensive care by Christmas regardless of what measures are now decided by politicians.

That compares with a previous high of 5,745 coronavirus patients in intensive care on 3 January. Germany also has fewer beds available now due to a shortage of nursing staff.

“The situation is really becoming increasingly tight,” Marx told ZDF television, calling for the government to consider a temporary lockdown. “We need to save the clinics from collapse.”

Associated Press report that four people in southern Germany have tested positive for the Omicron Covid-19 variant even though they were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, the public health office in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg said.