Health News at Your Fingertips

South Africa is facing an “unprecedented rise” in new Covid-19 cases over a short time due to the Omicron variant, top scientist Michelle Groome of South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases said on Friday.

Groome told a media briefing that although additional data on the variant detected in the country last month is still needed on the severity and transmissibility of the variant, the country was starting to see infections move from the younger age cohort into older people.

Reuters report she said it was important for surge preparedness to include paediatric beds and staff as there has been increased admissions among children under four years of age.

Conservative chair Oliver Dowden has planted his flag very firmly in the pro-Christmas party camp in the UK this morning on Sky News. He said:

All of our advice is based on scientific evidence and indeed, the chief medical officer and the chief scientific adviser attended cabinet when we discussed this earlier this week. That’s why we’ve gone for this balanced and proportionate set of measures.

So it is the case that, unlike previously in England, people will have to wear masks on public transport, and they’ll have to wear masks in retail settings. We’ve very much tightened up the border restrictions.

But beyond that, we believe those are necessary and appropriate steps, but beyond that, people can carry on with their plans as before. So I would say to people, just keep calm and carry on with your Christmas plans as already set out.

Hello, it is Martin Belam here in London taking over the live blog for the next few hours. The UK media round is being handled for the government by Conservative chairman Oliver Dowden today. I’ll have any Covid lines that emerge from that – presumably a lot of questions about Christmas parties again.

Here are the latest coronavirus figures for the UK.

Over the last seven days there have been 311,957 new coronavirus cases recorded in the UK. Cases have increased by 2.8% week-on-week.

There have been 848 deaths recorded in the last week. Deaths have decreased by 3% week-on-week.

Hospital admissions have decreased by 6.5% week-on-week. At the latest count on the UK government’s own dashboard, there were 7,644 people in hospital in total, of whom 931 are in ventilation beds.

Sri Lanka’s health authorities on Friday said they have identified the first Omicron patient in the country.

The Health Ministry said the new Covid-19 variant was identified in a Sri Lankan national who had recently returned from South Africa.

“As a result of our vigilance we have been able to identify an Omicron patient following gene sequencing lab tests. There is no need for us to panic over this. We are dealing with the situation,” Dr Hemantha Herath Deputy Director of Health Services told reporters.

South African health minister Joe Phaahla said on Friday the country was entering its fourth wave of Covid-19 infections due to the Omicron variant, but hospitals were not under threat at this stage.

Phaahla told a virtual media briefing that infections with the new variant were now present in seven out of the country’s nine provinces, and hoped that the variant could be managed without causing too many deaths.

He urged South Africans to be fully vaccinated, saying that was the best protection against Omicron.

Phaahla expressed his “outrage and disappointment” at the countries who have so far initiated travel bans on southern African nations, describing the decision as as “destructive path” that “undermines international cooperation and solidarity”.

Phaahla described the recent rise in Covid cases across the nation as “very steep” with new cases increasing by more than 300% over the past seven days.

“Every area in the country is starting to register high levels of the infection,” he said.

“This variant is indeed highly transmissible including in people who have already been vaccinated.”

Just over 42% of all adults have received at least one vaccination dose in South Africa, Phaahla said.

France confirms nine cases of the Omicron variant on the mainland, the health ministry has said.

We will have more details as the story develops.

Asia-Pacific countries should boost their healthcare capacity and fully vaccinate their people to prepare for a surge in Covid-19 cases fuelled by the Omicron variant, World Health Organization (WHO) officials warned on Friday.

Takeshi Kasai, WHO regional director for the western Pacific, told a virtual media briefing:

“Border controls can buy time but every country and every community must prepare for new surges in cases.

People should not only rely on border measures. What is most important is to prepare for these variants with potential high transmissibility. So far the information available suggests we don’t have to change our approach.”

Kasai said countries must utilise lessons learned from dealing with the Delta variant and urged them to fully vaccinate vulnerable groups and implement preventive measures such as mask wearing and social distancing rules.

The nations with the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns have been broken down by Agence France-Presse.

The United Arab Emirates leads the charge, having already completely vaccinated nine out of 10 of its population.

Close behind are Portugal (87%), Singapore (86%), Qatar (85%), Chile and Malta (84%), Cuba (81%), South Korea and Cambodia (80%).

The countries which fired the starting gun on the vaccination campaigns due to their privileged access to vaccines are now lagging behind.

Britain has jabbed just 68%, Israel 67% and the US 60%.

Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo are the least vaccinated countries in the world, having jabbed less than 0.1% of their populations.

Eritrea and North Korea are the only two countries who have not vaccinated at all.

Malaysia has detected the country’s first case of the Omicron coronavirus variant, health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said on Friday.

It was detected in a foreign student who was quarantined after arrival from South Africa two weeks ago.

The 19-year-old woman, who was asymptomatic and had been vaccinated, had tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival in Malaysia, via Singapore, and was quarantined for 10 days before being released on 29 November.

Five other people who shared a vehicle with her prior to her quarantine all tested negative, Reuters reports.

Authorities, however, have asked the student along with eight close contacts to undergo further testing after her earlier test samples were confirmed to be the new variant.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is struggling to vaccinate its population, ranking among the least immunised nations in the world.

In a population of 90 million, a mere 0.16% have received one dose – and this falls to just 0.06% for those who have been fully vaccinated, Agence France Presse reports.

In early March, 1.7 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, dispatched via the Covax mechanism for poorer countries, arrived in the DRC.

But authorities postponed the start of vaccinations after several European countries suspended vaccination campaigns with AstraZeneca over fears that it caused rare but serious blood clotting.

Rumours flooded social media, claiming that vaccination made people sterile or that Africans were to be used as “guinea pigs” or even killed. The coronavirus was presented as a “white man’s disease” brought into the DRC by travellers.

President Felix Tshisekedi made his suspicions of the AstraZeneca jab widely known.

“I think I was right not to be vaccinated … I had my doubts,” he said, adding that he preferred to wait for other vaccines before taking the plunge.

Many Congolese say they have not been vaccinated “yet” or are waiting to see, but among others, scepticism runs deep.

“They say that vaccines in Europe are not the same as here,” Emmanuel, a 62-year-old police officer, told AFP by way of explanation.

“In my opinion, Covid does not exist,” Fabrice, a 21-year-old architecture student, said, adding he did not even know anyone who has caught it.

India has just released its daily Covid figures.

A total of 9,216 new cases have been reported in the last 24 hours, according to a ministry of health update.

The nation’s active caseload currently stands at 99,976 – the lowest since March 2020.

Here’s a quick rundown of all the key developments that have unfolded over the past few hours.

• California is reporting its second confirmed case of the Omicron variant in as many days.
• Two more US states report the Omicron variant. Hawaii says it detected a case in an unvaccinated Hawaii resident with no recent travel history. New York reported five cases.
• New Zealand’s largest city of Auckland celebrates after emerging from a gruelling 107 days in lockdown.
• South Korea reports another 4,944 cases of Covid-19 and 34 deaths. The figures are a drop on Thursday’s record of more than 5,200 daily infections as concern grows over the sharp rise in patients with severe symptoms.
• South Africa reports another 11,535 new cases and 44 deaths – a significant jump from Wednesday’s 8,561 new cases, up from 4,373 the day before and 2,273 on Monday.
• A continuing outbreak in a Chinese city of Manzhouli on the Russian border has prompted more freight shutdowns as authorities seek to control it. The country reported 96 new Covid cases for 2 December, up from 73 cases a day earlier.
• China will reduce the time needed for approval of travel by US business executives to no more than 10 days.
• Germany is reporting a further 74,352 new daily Covid cases and 390 deaths, according to recently released figures from the Robert Koch Institute.
• Panama and Nepal both join the growing list of countries on Thursday to move to temporarily ban the entry of travellers from eight African countries due to concerns over the spread of the Omicron variant.

Panama has joined the growing list of countries on Thursday to move to temporarily ban the entry of travellers from eight African countries due to concerns over the spread of the Omicron variant.

The restriction applies to travellers who have been to South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe or Malawi within a two-week period, Panama’s government said in a statement, Reuters reports.

Panamanians and residents of the country who are vaccinated must present a negative Covid-19 test within 72 hours of arriving in the country, while those who are not inoculated must place themselves in “preventative quarantine,” the government said.

Nepal will ban the entry of travellers who have been in eight African countries or Hong Kong, to curb the spread of the new Omicron coronavirus variant, a government spokesman said on Friday.

The ban, which goes into effect at midnight on Friday, covers people who have been in or transiting through South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Malawi and Hong Kong.

Travellers who have been to these countries in the past three weeks will also not be allowed to enter Nepal, and all other international visitors already in transit must spend seven days at their own cost in hotel quarantine, the government said in a statement.

“Nepali nationals are advised against non-essential foreign travel for fear of the new variant,” Home Ministry spokesman Phanindra Pokharel told Reuters.

Germany is reporting a further 74,352 new daily Covid cases and 390 deaths, according to recently released figures from the Robert Koch Institute.

The daily rise brings the cumulative confirmed coronavirus cases in the country to more than six million with 6,051,560 cases.