A summary of today's developments
- Turkey recorded 111,157 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, its highest daily figure of the pandemic, while the daily death toll was its highest in four months, health ministry data showed.
- The UK has recorded 84,053 new cases of coronavirus and 254 Covid-linked deaths, according to the latest update on the government’s dashboard. Those figures compare to 88,171 new Covid cases and 303 deaths within 28 days of a positive test on Thursday
- A law requiring most adults in Austria to get vaccinated against Covid is ready to take effect, but the sense of urgency that accompanied its announcement in November has largely evaporated.
- India’s death toll from Covid-19 has officially crossed 500,000. Yet many health experts say half a million deaths was reached last year but obscured by inaccurate surveys.
- Russia broke its daily Covid record again on Friday with infections surging to 168,201. Russia, gripped by Omicron, has smashed its daily Covid record practially every day for the past two weeks.
- Ukraine also registered a record daily high of 43,778 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours.
- Scientists in South Africa are keeping their eyes on the BA.2 Omicron sub-variant, which made up 23% of recent samples, but said there’s no clear sign BA.2 is substantially different to the original Omicron.
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Spain will lift its outdoor mask mandate from next Thursday, health minister Carolina Darias said.
- Allies of embattled UK prime minister Boris Johnson came out swinging on this morning’s broadcast round, saying he is “taking charge” amid the partygate row, following a series of departures on Thursday which were dubbed a “meltdown in Downing Street”.
- Malaysia detected over 7,000 Covid infections for the first time since mid-October, as the health minister said a further Omicron surge is likely.
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Poland reported 47,534 positive Covid tests in the past 24 hours – near-peak levels – which is a 30% rise on two weeks ago.
- Africa must boost the vaccination rate against Covid “six times” to reach the target of 70% coverage set for the end of the first half of 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
- The vaccine developed by Novavax has been approved by the UK regulator for over-18s. Clinical trials suggest two doses have a roughly 90% efficacy against symptomatic Covid.
- South Korea extended social distancing rules for an additional two weeks as Omicron variant infections soar, including a 9pm curfew for restaurants and a six-person limit on private gatherings.
Police have a photograph of Boris Johnson holding a can of beer at his lockdown birthday party in June 2020, according to reports.
It is understood to be among the 300 pictures submitted to the Metropolitan police by Sue Gray for their investigation into social gatherings which breached coronavirus regulations.
The UK’s prime minister is pictured with a can of Estrella beer standing next to the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, in No 10’s Cabinet Room, the Mirror has been told.
It was reported that the picture was taken by the prime minister’s official taxpayer-funded photographer, who was documenting the event in June 2020.
A study in monkeys pitting the current Moderna Inc Covid-19 booster against an Omicron-specific booster showed no significant differences in protection, suggesting an Omicron-specific booster may not be needed, US government researchers reported.
The study involved monkeys vaccinated with two doses of Moderna’s vaccine who were dosed nine months later with either the conventional Moderna booster or one specifically targeting the Omicron variant.
The researchers tested various aspects of the animals’ immune responses and exposed them to the virus.
They found both boosters produced “comparable and significant increases in neutralising antibody responses” against all of the variants of concern, including Omicron, according to the study, posted on bioRxiv ahead of peer review.
Both Moderna Inc and BioNTech/Pfizer Inc have started testing Omicron-specific boosters of their vaccines in human clinical trials.
“This is very, very good news,” Daniel Douek, a vaccine researcher at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who co-lead the study, told Reuters.
“It means we don’t need to radically redesign the vaccine to make it an Omicron vaccine.”
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Brazil recorded 184,311 new coronavirus cases and 493 deaths in the last 24 hours, the country’s health ministry said on Friday, although data was missing from the populous states of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
Brazil has now registered more than 26 million cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 630,494, Reuters reports.
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US health officials said they are considering lengthening the recommended interval between the first two doses of the most widely used Covid-19 vaccines to eight weeks to lower the risk of heart inflammation and improve their effectiveness, Reuters reports.
Dr Sara Oliver, an official at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said the agency was considering making the recommendation for Moderna and Pfizer /BioNTech jabs during a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel of outside advisers to the CDC.
In the US, the recommended interval between the two Pfizer jabs is three weeks while it is four weeks for Moderna’s vaccine.
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Wearing any kind of mask indoors is associated with significantly better protection from coronavirus, with N95 and KN95 coverings providing the best chance of avoiding infection, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US, the Washington Post reported.
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Police in Canada have vowed to crack down on an “increasingly dangerous” protest by hundreds of truckers who have shut down the centre of the capital Ottawa for eight days to demand an end to Covid-19 vaccine mandates.
In the western province of Alberta, where truckers have been blocking a major border crossing with the United States in a similar protest, premier Jason Kenney said ministers would meet early next week to start lifting restrictions, Reuters reports.
Blockades are also planned in Quebec City and Toronto, where authorities closed off access to the city centres.
“We all want to do everything we can to avoid the situation we are seeing in Ottawa,” said Toronto mayor John Tory.
John Souisa had spent five days at sea when relief washed over him – the Australian navy was approaching their boat, which was carrying 53 asylum seekers. After dodging Indonesian patrols, battling rough seas, and warding off hunger, the group had finally made it.
And just off the coast of Darwin, a huge warship was there to guide them safely to shore.
It was the year 2000 and behind them, John and his son Paul had left a terrible conflict in a remote and rarely visited part of Indonesia, one that led to more than 5,000 deaths and the displacement of 700,000 people.
On 16 January this year, John, 78, became one of the 42 South Australians to die from Covid that day.
Preventing future pandemics at source would cost a small fraction of the damage already caused by viruses that jump from wildlife to people, according to scientists.
Each year on average more than 3 million people die from zoonotic diseases, those that spillover from wildlife into humans, new analysis has calculated.
The scientists heavily criticise approaches by global bodies and governments that focus only on preventing the spread of new viruses once they have infected humans, rather than tackling the root causes as well.
Police in Canada have promised tougher action against the “unlawful and unacceptably dangerous” protests in the nation’s capital, but admitted the situation was increasingly out of their control.
With 400 more trucks and 2,000 protesters expected to arrive in the city this weekend, Ottawa police on Friday announced that 150 additional officers will be deployed and concrete barricades set up to prevent more vehicles from reaching the city’s downtown core. Illegally parked vehicles will be towed and highways and bridges could be closed.
Hundreds of trucks have remained outside parliament for nearly a week in protest against public health measures. Sloly said that the police force took “no solace” in the fact that the current police strategy has so far prevented “riots, injuries and death”.
France has recorded 104,804 coronavirus deaths in hospital, up by 355.
It also reported 3,618 people are in intensive care units with Covid-19, down by 25, Reuters reports.
Turkey records highest daily toll of cases
Turkey recorded 111,157 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, its highest daily figure of the pandemic, while the daily death toll was its highest in four months, health ministry data showed on Friday.
In late December, daily cases stood at about 20,000 but have since surged due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The data also showed 248 people died due to Covid-19 in the same 24-hour period, the highest daily toll since Oct. 4 when there were also 248 deaths, Reuters reports.
Of the 377 local areas in the UK, 111 (29%) have seen a week-on-week rise in Covid-19 rates, 264 (70%) have seen a fall and two are unchanged.
Lisburn & Castlereagh in Northern Ireland has the highest rate in the UK, with 2,871 cases in the seven days to January 31.
Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon in Northern Ireland has the second highest rate, up slightly from 1,924.2 to 1,942.6, with 4,220 cases.
Cambridge has the third highest rate, down slightly from 1,812.7 to 1,796.7, with 2,247 cases, PA reports.
UK reports 84,053 new cases and 254 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test
The UK has recorded 84,053 new cases of coronavirus and 254 Covid-linked deaths, according to the latest update on the government’s dashboard.
Those figures compare to 88,171 new Covid cases and 303 deaths within 28 days of a positive test on Thursday. On Friday last week, the UK reported 89,176 new cases of coronavirus and 277 deaths within 28 days of a positive test
Police in the Canadian capital of Ottawa have promised tougher action against hundreds of truckers who have blockaded the city centre for eight days as part of a protest against Covid vaccine mandates.
To the increasing fury of residents, police have so far largely stood by and watched as some protesters smashed windows, threatened reporters and abused racial minorities.
The Ottawa police service said it would put more officers on the street and was “implementing a surge and contain strategy” to restore order, Reuters reported.
“The hatred, violence, and illegal acts that Ottawa residents and businesses have endured over the last week is unacceptable in any circumstance,” it said in a statement.
“The Ottawa Police Service and the City of Ottawa are bringing significantly greater resources to restore order, hold offenders to account and protect our neighbourhoods.”
Police will order some truckers to move and if they refuse, their vehicles will be towed, it said.
The Omicron variant is causing record numbers of new Covid infections in Russia and Ukraine, threatening to impact military calculations over Russia’s continued troop buildup.
Analysts have cited various factors as possible contributors to whether and how Russia will launch an assault on Ukraine, ranging from Vladimir Putin’s psychological state to the strength of the western response and even the firmness of the ground during a mild winter in the region.
Covid is emerging as another element that may complicate plans for the Russian and Ukrainian armies, as record case numbers in both societies are replicated among the troops.
There is a realistic possibility of large waves of Covid infection in the future in Britain and such waves might even be considered likely, epidemiologists who model the Covid pandemic to inform government advice have said.
Prime minister Boris Johnson has ditched legal restrictions in England, saying that, while the pandemic was not over, Britain needs to learn to live with Covid, Reuters reported.
The Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational sub-group (SPI-M-O) said the emergence of new viral variants was the biggest unknown factor in the medium-to-long term, along with waning population immunity and changes in mixing patterns.
“Large future waves of infection that need active management to prevent detrimental pressure on the health and care sector are, at least, a realistic possibility (high confidence) or likely (medium confidence),” SPI-M-O said in a consensus statement published on Friday.
Britain has reported 157,730 deaths from Covid, the seventh highest total globally, and Johnson has faced heavy criticism for his handling of the pandemic, which has seen three national lockdowns.
The US economy appeared to shake off the Omicron in January with employers adding 467,000 new jobs, the labor department reported on Friday.
Data for the report was collected in mid-January when the Omicron variant was at its peak in the US and while some economists – and the White House – had predicted a dramatic slump in jobs growth, the number of jobs added was far better than expected.
Nearly 9 million people reported they were not working because they were sick or were caring for someone who had fallen ill between 29 December and 10 January, according to the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, the highest figure the survey has reported since it began in 2020.
The unemployment rate remained low overall at 4%, down from a pandemic high of 14.8% in April 2020.
England's R number rises to between 0.8 and 1.1
The estimated range of England’s Covid reproduction “R” number has risen to between 0.8 and 1.1, returning to its value of two weeks ago, the UK Health Security Agency said on Friday, adding that the number of cases each day could be rising.
An R number between 0.8 and 1.1 means that for every 10 people infected, they will on average infect between eight and 11 other people. Last week, the range was 0.7 to 0.9, however, the week before the range was also 0.8 to 1.1.
The daily growth of infections was estimated at between -3% to +1%, compared with -6% to -2% the previous week.
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In Scotland, a community hospital is taking no new admissions due to an outbreak of coronavirus.
Invergordon County Community hospital announced its closure to new patients and visitors on Friday after it detected a small number of positive cases on site, PA Media reported.
Staff said contacts of those who have tested positive have been identified and given advice, and patients in the hospital are being monitored, with in-patient care continuing as normal.
A spokesperson for the hospital said:
All appropriate infection prevention and control measures have been put in place.
We have not reached this decision lightly and recognise that this could cause a great deal of concern and anxiety for patients and their loved ones during this time. These measures will be reviewed on a regular basis.
If your visit is essential please contact the ward your relative or loved one is in, and the staff will support you with arrangements.
Please do not visit any of our hospitals or care home settings if you or anyone else in your household has tested positive for Covid-19 or has any symptoms.
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The UK’s transport secretary Grant Shapps has tested positive for coronavirus.
Shapps is the second British cabinet minister to test positive in the space of five days following foreign secretary Liz Truss, who revealed she was isolating on Monday.
Writing on Twitter, Shapps said: “Have tested positive for £COVID19 so am self-isolating and testing as required.”
Have tested positive for #COVID19 so am self-isolating and testing as required.
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) February 4, 2022
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Austria becomes first European nation to impose vaccine mandate
A law requiring most adults in Austria to get vaccinated against Covid is ready to take effect, but the sense of urgency that accompanied its announcement in November has largely evaporated.
Few other countries look likely to go as far as attention turns to loosening restrictions, the Associated Press reports.
The Austrian mandate for residents 18 and over to get vaccinated — the first of its kind in Europe – cleared its last legislative hurdle Thursday when parliament’s upper house approved what health minister Wolfgang Mückstein called “a forward-looking and active step”.
It’s expected to become law in the coming days but it will be a while before Austrians notice any practical change. And it isn’t clear when or even whether the toughest part of the plan, which was watered down from the initial proposal, will take effect.
Only in mid-March will police start checking people’s vaccination status during traffic stops and checks on coronavirus restrictions.
People who can’t produce proof of vaccination will be asked in writing to do so, and will be fined up to €600 ($680) if they don’t; fines could reach €3,600 if people contest their punishment and full proceedings are opened.
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The risk of death involving Covid is 93% lower for people who have had a booster or third dose of vaccine compared with unvaccinated people, research suggests.
Mortality rates for coronavirus deaths were found to be “consistently lower” across all age groups for those who had received an extra dose compared with those who had received no doses, according to the the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The research used age-standardised mortality rates, which take into account differences in age structure and population size, to allow for comparisons between vaccination groups, the Press Association reports.
Among fully vaccinated people in England who had received a booster or third dose at least 21 days previously, the age-adjusted risk of death involving Covid between July and December last year was 93.4% lower compared with unvaccinated people, while it was 81.2% lower for those who had received only two doses.
For much of 2021, mortality rates for death involving Covid for people who had received two doses of vaccine remained well below the equivalent figures for people who were unvaccinated, the ONS found.
But rates among double-jabbed people started to increase at the end of last year, jumping from 92.0 deaths per 100,000 in October to 221.1 in November and 367.7 in December.
This may have been driven by a change in the composition of the double-jabbed group, with most older people having received a booster or third dose by this point, the ONS said. It might also be connected to “waning protection from prior vaccination”.
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Hong Kong plans to roll out rapid antigen tests for Covid to all of its 7.5 million population in the near future, city leader Carrie Lam said today.
It comes as the increasingly isolated global financial hub tries to control a new outbreak, the Reuters news agency reported.
Lam told reporters her government was working on increasing testing, contact tracing and vaccination capacity and making plans to send hospitalised asymptomatic patients to a quarantine facility reserved for close contacts as infections add up.
Amid worries of invisible transmissions in the city, Lam said the government was procuring tens of millions of rapid antigen tests, but did not specify when and how the government will deploy them for voluntary universal testing.
On Friday, Hong Kong reported 131 positive cases, compared with 142 on Thursday. Some 195 tested “preliminary positive” and may be added to the count in coming days subject to further tests. The previous record was 164 cases in late January.
“This latest outbreak is the worst we have seen in the past two years,” Lam said. “Our strategy is the same: we aim to cut transmission chains as soon as possible.”
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Hello, I’m Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest Covid news from around the world over the next five hours or so.
Let’s start with the news that direct international flights to Bali have resumed for the first time in two years as Indonesia opens the resort island to foreign travellers from all countries.
However, mandatory quarantine remains in place for all visitors, the Associated Press reported.
Officials had said in October that Bali would welcome foreign arrivals from 19 countries that meet World Health Organization criteria, such as having their Covid cases under control.
But there were no direct international flights to Bali until Thursday, when Garuda Indonesia operated its first such flight in two years from Tokyo.
Singapore Airlines will introduce a regular direct route to and from Denpasar in Bali starting 16 February, said Taufan Yudhistira, the public relations manager at Bali’s international airport.
Fully vaccinated travellers need to quarantine for five days in a hotel or on a live-onboard boat certified by the ministry of tourism and creative economy, and travellers who have received one dose of Covid vaccine must quarantine for seven days.
Indonesia reported 27,197 new coronavirus infections and 38 deaths on Thursday in the latest 24-hour period.
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Summary
Here’s a round-up of today’s Covid news from around the world so far.
- India’s death toll from Covid-19 has officially crossed 500,000. Yet many health experts say half a million deaths was reached last year but obscured by inaccurate surveys.
- Russia broke its daily Covid record again on Friday with infections surging to 168,201. Russia, gripped by Omicron, has smashed its daily Covid record practially every day for the past two weeks.
- Ukraine also registered a record daily high of 43,778 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours.
- Scientists in South Africa are keeping their eyes on the BA.2 Omicron sub-variant, which made up 23% of recent samples, but said there’s no clear sign BA.2 is substantially different to the original Omicron.
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Spain will lift its outdoor mask mandate from next Thursday, health minister Carolina Darias said.
- Allies of embattled UK prime minister Boris Johnson came out swinging on this morning’s broadcast round, saying he is “taking charge” amid the partygate row, following a series of departures on Thursday which were dubbed a “meltdown in Downing Street”.
- Malaysia detected over 7,000 Covid infections for the first time since mid-October, as the health minister said a further Omicron surge is likely.
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Poland reported 47,534 positive Covid tests in the past 24 hours – near-peak levels – which is a 30% rise on two weeks ago.
- Africa must boost the vaccination rate against Covid “six times” to reach the target of 70% coverage set for the end of the first half of 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
- The vaccine developed by Novavax has been approved by the UK regulator for over-18s. Clinical trials suggest two doses have a roughly 90% efficacy against symptomatic Covid.
- South Korea extended social distancing rules for an additional two weeks as Omicron variant infections soar, including a 9pm curfew for restaurants and a six-person limit on private gatherings.
That’s all from me, Jem Bartholomew, for today. I’ll be back next week. Over to my colleague Tom Ambrose for the next few hours. Bye for now.
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Malaysia detected more than 7,000 Covid infections for the first time since mid-October, local media the New Straits Times reports.
The country clocked 7,234 positive tests in the past 24 hours, a 79% climb on the 4,046 cases recorded on Friday two weeks ago.
Health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said on Thursday cases are likely to continue surging – due to the virulence of Omicron – but said the public should not be alarmed as the country’s vaccination rate is high.
Malaysia’s total deaths from Covid-related causes are above 32,000, the 29th highest worldwide. (It has the 45th highest population.)
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Poland reported 47,534 positive Covid tests in the past 24 hours, Polskie Radio reports, a 30% rise on the 36,664 new cases on Friday two weeks ago.
Poland is experiencing a surging Omicron wave and infections are at near-peak levels of over 50,000.
Health minister Adam Niedzielski has warned infections could approach 140,000 a day by mid-February. Public sector workers have been told to work from home.
A further 246 people were reported to have died from Covid-related causes, compared with 248 two weeks ago. That takes the country’s death toll to 106,306, the world’s 15th highest. (Poland has the 38th highest population.)
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Researchers at the UK’s University of Oxford will seek to repurpose existing anti-viral therapies to treat Covid as part of a small project, Reuters reports.
Scientists will initially screen 138 drugs with known antiviral activity against the Covid-causing Sars-CoV-2 virus to study and identify combinations which would boost their potential, the university said in a statement.
Promising combinations will be submitted to UK authorities for clinical trials.
“There are multiple benefits with discovering new treatments in this way,” said Ultan Power, one of the principal investigators of the project. “They have been through all the necessary checks so we know they are safe and readily available, they can be self-administered and used at home, helping to reduce the burden on the healthcare system.”
The £1.6 million pound project is led by Queen’s University Belfast, with experts from Queen’s, the University of Liverpool and Oxford. It is being funded by Britain’s Medical Research Council.
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Israel detected 46,347 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, the Jerusalem Post reports, taking the number of active infections to 373,160.
Israel experienced spiking cases last month driven by the highlyinfectious Omicron, but infections appear to be receding.
The R rate is 0.9, the Post reports. The country has reported a total of 9,080 people dying from Covid-related causes, the 61st highest worldwide. (Israel has the 100th highest population.)
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Spain to scrap outdoor mask mandate from Thursday
Spain will lift its outdoor mask mandate from next Thursday, health minister Carolina Darias said.
The measure intended to compress the Omicron strain was introduced in December.
Reuters reports the details:
In the past two weeks, Covid-19’s contagion rate, measured over the past 14 days, has been steadily falling to 2,421 cases per 100,000 people on Thursday down from almost 3,400 in early January.
Despite the surge in cases between November and January as Omicron spread, hospital admissions and deaths remain well below those seen in earlier waves of the pandemic, thanks in large part to Spain’s high vaccination rate.
Spain reported 74,368 new infections on Thursday, down 53% from the 157,447 new cases on Thursday two weeks ago.
The country has a death toll of 94,040 people dying from Covid-related causes, the 18th highest worldwide. (Spain has the 30th highest population.)
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UK's Boris Johnson seeks to 'take charge' after 'meltdown in Downing Street'
Allies of embattled UK prime minister Boris Johnson came out swinging on this morning’s broadcast round, after a series of departures on Thursday were dubbed a “meltdown in Downing Street”.
Greg Hands, the energy minister, said Johnson is taking charge of his Downing Street team by making changes after the ”partygate” row.
It comes after the resignation on Thursday of four key No 10 officials – policy chief Munira Mirza, chief of staff Dan Rosenfield, Martin Reynolds, Johnson’s principal private secretary, and director of communications Jack Doyle.
“Resignations have been made, resignations have been accepted,” Hands told Sky, adding: “This is the prime minister taking charge.”
After Mirza’s departure and criticism of Johnson – her colleague and ally of 14 years – the three other resignations were then announced in quick succession on Thursday night, in what was seen widely in Westminster as an attempt to regain control.
On Friday morning, another adviser reportedly quit. Elena Narozanski, a special adviser to the prime minister on women and equalities, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and extremism, has resigned, according to Paul Goodman, the editor of Conservative Home.
Number Ten Policy Unit member Elena Narozanski has quit.
— Paul Goodman (@PaulGoodmanCH) February 4, 2022
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Russia hurdles daily Covid record again – to almost 170,000 infections
Russia broke its daily Covid record again on Friday with infections surging to 168,201, Reuters reports.
That’s a 242% jump on the 49,127 cases detected on Friday two weeks ago, which was itself a record-breaker.
Russia, gripped by Omicron, has smashed its daily Covid record practially every day for the past two weeks. Thursday saw 155,768 cases.
The labour ministry has recommended working from home. But the Kremlin has ruled out a national lockdown. Meanwhile, at the local level some cities have imposed restrictions to crimp the virus’s spread.
A further 682 deaths from Covid-related causes were reported in the past 24 hours. Russia has the world’s 2nd highest Covid death toll of over 700,000, according to a Reuters estimate, behind only the US. (Russia has the 9th highest population worldwide.)
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Scientists in South Africa are keeping their eyes on the BA.2 Omicron sub-variant, which is appearing in greater numbers in the country, but said there’s no clear sign BA.2 is substantially different.
BA.2 accounted for 23% of 450 January samples collected via genomic surveillance, compared with 75% for the original Omicron strain. (BA.2 accounted for 4% of 2,243 December samples.)
“We are seeing this increase with the BA.2, we are still trying to get more information on this particular sub-lineage … and so we are increasing sequencing,” said Michelle Groome, from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.
“At this stage, there is no indication that there would be … differences between these different sub-lineages of Omicron. As we saw with Delta there were lots of lineages and we didn’t see a lot of difference between them, but we will keep monitoring,” she added.
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Bulgaria reported 8,142 new Covid infections yesterday, public broadcaster BNT reports, taking the country’s 7-day average to 8,134 cases a day.
That’s near last week’s peak of over 12,000, as Omicron has jolted infections up to record levels recently. There are 6,124 Covid patients in hospital.
A further 96 people died from Covid-related causes – 88.5% of which were not vaccinated, BNT reports – taking the 7-day average to 82 people dying a day.
Bulgaria, the European Union’s least-vaccinated country, has recorded a death toll of over 33,500, the 28th highest globally. (Bulgaria has the 107th highest population.)
In the US, as the wave driven by the highly-infectious Omicron variant spikes, about 80% of hospitals are still under ‘high or extreme stress,’ The Guardian reports.
That’s according to data compiled by National Public Radio using a framework from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
“Everyone of us said if we could go back, we would choose a different career,” said Dr Brian Resler, an emergency physician in the San Francisco Bay Area, adding: “Most people got into healthcare because they wanted to help people and make a difference, and I think at this point, it’s just broken beyond repair.”
My colleague Eric Berger reports the details:
In Missouri, the second worst state in the country for hospitalizations, 79% of the hospitals are under extreme stress. At Mercy hospital in Springfield, in the south-western part of the state, about 28% of their hospitalizations are Covid-19 patients, according to Erik Frederick, the hospital’s chief administrative office. ...
“It creates a lot of stress on the healthcare system,” Frederick said.
Every few hours at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the house supervisor, who coordinates care for patients, sends out alerts about the numbers of available beds in particular units.
“When those numbers get small, it means that we have to make some hard decisions,” said Dr Rachel Pearson, assistant professor of pediatrics and the medical humanities at UT Health San Antonio. “Sometimes that means kids who I would prefer to be upstairs with my hospital pediatrics team are stranded in the [emergency department].”
Read the full report here.
Let’s take a look at the UK’s Covid figures in context.
Cases have spiked from recent Omicron-driven peaks, but the Office for National Statistics warned on Wednesday cases have stopped falling, and in some areas are climbing:
Hospitalisations rose, although much less significantly than last year’s wave, and are now falling:
When it comes to deaths from Covid-related causes, the Omicron wave did see an uptick, but the strong link between infections and deaths has been broken after the vaccine drive:
This is Jem Bartholomew in London taking charge of the global Covid blog for today. Do get in touch via email or Twitter with tips from around the world.
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Ukraine registered a record daily high of 43,778 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, reports Reuters.
Ukraine’s health ministry revealed the figure on Friday, just one day after the country’s previous record daily high of 39,620 cases was reported.
Ministry data on Friday showed 174 new related deaths.
Ukraine’s total infections in the pandemic stands at 4.2 million so far, with 100,983 deaths.
South Korea has extended Covid-19 social distancing rules on Friday for an additional two weeks as Omicron variant infections soar, including a 9pm curfew for restaurants and a six-person limit on private gatherings, Reuters reports.
The restrictions were due to end on Sunday but South Korea’s prime minister, Kim Boo-kyum, said the extension was necessary to slow the spread of Omicron amid fears the Lunar New Year holiday, which ended on Wednesday, may have fuelled infections.
“Slowing the pace of the Omicron’s spread, which is heading to its peak day after day, is a priority in this difficult circumstance,” he said at a televised government response meeting.
New daily cases have tripled over the past two weeks, but the number of deaths and serious infections have remained relatively low in the highly vaccinated country.
South Korea reported a record daily increase of 27,443 new Covid-19 cases, with 24 new deaths, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on Friday.
Nearly 86% of the country’s 52 million population are fully vaccinated, with 53.8% having received booster shots.
To handle the surge in cases, the government has rolled out a new testing regime under which only priority groups take a PCR tests while others can get a rapid antigen test at a clinic for faster initial diagnosis.
It also reduced the mandatory quarantine time for vaccinated people who test positive from 10 days to a week, and allowed more people with few or no symptoms to be treated at home.
Overall South Korea has reported 934,656 Covid-19 cases, and 6,836 deaths since the pandemic began.
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Austria’s planned Covid-19 vaccine mandate was approved by the upper house of parliament Thursday evening, clearing one of the final hurdles before it can take effect, Associated Press reports.
The chamber voted overwhelmingly in favour of the mandate, 47 to 12, following a vote in the lower chamber of parliament on Jan. 20. It will now be sent to president Alexander van der Bellen for signing.
“Today is an important day,” health minister Wolfgang Mueckstein said during the parliamentary debate. With the vaccine mandate, he said Austria “isn’t simply reacting, but we are taking a forward-looking and active step.”
Under the law, the first of its kind in Europe, all adults aged 18 and older will be required to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. Once the mandate goes into effect, authorities will write to every household to inform them of the new rules.
From mid-March, police will start checking people’s vaccination status during routine checks; those who can’t produce proof of vaccination will be asked to do so in writing, and will be fined up to €600 ($676) if they don’t.
Officials originally announced the mandate would take effect on Tuesday 1 February, but the law still needed to be debated and approved by the upper house of parliament.
The news comes just as Austria plans to loosen many of its pandemic-related restrictions. Over the course of February, the country will ease restrictions on unvaccinated people entering shops, restaurants and other areas of public life from which they’ve been effectively barred since November.
Not all states will follow the national government’s lead, however: Vienna mayor Michael Ludwig announced Thursday that the capital will continue requiring proof of vaccination or recovery to enter restaurants.
After weeks of rapidly rising cases, Austria’s surge fuelled by the omicron variant of the virus shows some signs of slowing. The country reported 38,135 new infections on Wednesday, bringing its seven-day case rate down slightly to 2,597 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Updated
New Zealand has surpassed more than 200 new daily cases of Covid-19 in the community for the first time since November.
There were 209 cases reported across eight regions, with nine in hospital.
On Friday, people queued at vaccine centres, as a million more New Zealanders became eligible for the booster shot, following the government’s announcement earlier in the week it was reducing the interval between the second and third dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
While visiting a vaccination centre in Auckland today, prime minister Jacinda Ardern commented on Thursday’s border announcement, saying that the decision was a “carefully balanced” one. She said:
The most important thing we can do for New Zealanders right now is, unlike other countries, use the time we have before a large-scale outbreak, to be boosted. Very few countries have had that chance. We do.
That’s why we’ve deliberately timed the reopening to a point where 92% of New Zealanders will have been eligible to be boosted and therefore we’ll be as ready as we can be.”
New Zealand’s vaccination rates are continuing to creep up, with 94% of the population over 12 years old now double vaccinated, and Māori just 142 doses away from hitting the 90% first dose mark, the Ministry of Health announced.
Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has said a military response to the ongoing Ottawa protest against Covid-19 measures is “not in the cards right now”, Associated Press reports.
Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly said this week that all options are on the table, including calling in the military, to end the ongoing demonstration that was being called an “occupation” by some on the city council.
Thousands of protesters railing against vaccine mandates and other Covid-19 restrictions descended on the capital last weekend, deliberately blocking traffic around Parliament Hill. Police estimate about 250 remain.
Trudeau said one must be “very, very cautious” about deploying troops on Canadian soil, adding there has been no such request to the federal government. He said any formal requests for assistance from the City of Ottawa or Ontario would be considered.
Organisers, including one who has espoused white supremacist views, had raised millions for the cross-country “freedom truck convoy” against vaccine mandates and other restrictions.
It has attracted support from former US president Donald Trump.
Ottawa’s mayor, meanwhile, is calling on several opposition Conservative lawmakers to apologise for praising the protesters and posing with them.
A photo posted by one of the lawmakers shows them some giving the thumbs-up – in front of one of the protest trucks, which have been barricading roads and honking horns in the city almost non-stop since Saturday.
Mayor Jim Watson responded on Twitter by calling the action an “absolute disgrace,” saying residents have been harassed by protesters and businesses have been forced to close.
“We have no intent to stay one day longer than necessary. Our departure will be based on the prime minister doing what is right, sending all mandates and restrictions on our freedoms,” Tamara Lich, one of the protest organisers, said in a statement.
“Our movement is growing in Canada and across the world because common people are tired of the mandates and restrictions in their lives that now seem to be doing more harm than good.”
Lich declined to take questions.
The protesters are also calling for the removal of Trudeau’s government, though it is responsible for few of the measures, most of which were put in place by provincial governments. A protest is planned in the provincial capital of Toronto on Saturday.
The Ontario legislature is in close proximity to many along University Avenue.
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India's death toll exceeds 500,000
India’s death toll from Covid-19 has crossed 500,000, Reuters reports, a level many health experts say was breached last year but obscured by inaccurate surveys and unaccounted dead in the hinterlands, where millions remain vulnerable to the disease.
The country, which has the fourth-highest tally of deaths globally, recorded 400,000 deaths by July last year after the devastating outbreak from the Delta variant of the coronavirus, according to official data. Some experts believe the figures were much higher.
“Our study published in the journal Science estimates 3 million Covic deaths in India until mid-2021 using three different databases,” Chinmay Tumbe, an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad who co-authored the study, told Reuters.
Last month, the Indian government dismissed the study as baseless in a notification saying there is a robust system of birth and death reporting.
India’s states record deaths from Covid-19 after collating data from their districts. In the last few months, several states have updated the number of deaths, some under pressure from the country’s top court. In most instances, authorities said there were lapses due to delayed registrations and other administrative errors.
India is currently in the midst of a third wave of the coronavirus led by the Omicron variant, which some top experts say is already in community transmission although federal officials say most cases are mild.
Last month, the government eased testing norms and told states to drop mandatory testing for contacts of confirmed cases unless they were old or battling other conditions. But, with the number of tests falling, the government issued a revised circular warning states they would miss the spread of the virus.
But, as many infected people took the option of not testing at all, total infection numbers may not reflect the extent and severity of cases, said Gautam Menon, a professor of physics and biology at Ashoka University near the capital who has been tracking the spread of the virus.
According to official figures, India’s overall number of Covid-19 infections has reached 41.95 million, the second-highest globally behind the United States.
India’s cumulative tally of 500,055 deaths on Friday included 1,072 fatalities reported over the last 24 hours, according to the federal health ministry. Out of this, 335 deaths were reported from the southern state of Kerala that has, for weeks, been updating data with deaths from last year.
Updated
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Livingstone.
India’s death toll from Covid-19 has crossed 500,000, a level many health experts say was breached last year but obscured by inaccurate surveys and unaccounted dead in the hinterlands, where millions remain vulnerable to the disease.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has said a military response to the ongoing Ottawa protest against Covid-19 measures is “not in the cards right now” after
Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly said that all options were on the table.
- Tensions in societies around the world over the current Covid situation are going to be very difficult to handle, one of Britain’s most senior scientific figures has warned. Sir Jeremy Farrar, who stepped down as a government scientific adviser in November last year, warned the idea of simply “exiting” a pandemic was not realistic.
- Frustrations are boiling over in Canada’s capital as a protest by truckers against Covid-19 vaccine mandates has clogged downtown Ottawa for a week and shows no sign of ending, with many residents angry at police for not breaking it up.
- Two years after the outbreak of Covid, Europe could soon enter a “long period of tranquility” due to high vaccination rates, the milder Omicron variant and the end of winter, the WHO has said.
- Africa must boost the vaccination rate against Covid-19 “six times” to reach the target of 70 percent vaccine coverage set for the end of the first half of 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) said
- The number of adults in Denmark infected with Covid may be double the official tally, Danish scientists said on Thursday, after releasing data suggesting one third of the adult population has been infected in the past three months.
- The Covid-19 vaccine developed by Novavax has been approved by the UK regulator for use in people over the age of 18. Clinical trials suggest two doses of the Novavax jab have an efficacy of about 90% against symptomatic Covid, similar to the other approved UK vaccines.
- Palestinians are facing a winter coronavirus surge driven by the Omicron variant, placing stress on the medical system even though vaccines are widely available. More than 70,000 active cases in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip on Thursday, more than twice the number at the height of previous increases.
- South Africa’s Afrigen Biologics has used the publicly available sequence of Moderna’s Covid mRNA vaccine to make its own version of the shot, which could be tested in humans before the end of this year, Afrigen’s top executive has said.
