Category Archives: Coronavirus

Australia news live updates: Gladys Berejiklian rules out federal tilt; second woman killed in Queensland floods

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Former NSW premier confirms she won’t run in federal election; second Queensland woman found dead in floodwaters. Follow all the day’s developments

By the way, we are expecting to hear from Scott Morrison pretty soon about the recently Atagi approvals for children’s vaccinations.

Berejiklian:

Well, I promised when the PM and others contacted me and urged me to give it consideration. I promised them and I did for a very short period of time and then obviously let them know that it’s not something I want to pursue and it is just a different direction.

I want my life to change.

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Wales asks people to ‘flow before you go’ to stop Omicron spread

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Mark Drakeford also urges mask-wearing in pubs as Covid cases likely to rise ‘quickly and sharply’

People should take a lateral flow test before going out Christmas shopping or to a festive party, the Welsh government has said.

The first minister, Mark Drakeford, is also asking people to wear face coverings in pubs and restaurants except when they are eating or drinking.

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Government faces Tory backbench revolt over plan B Covid measures

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Dozens of Conservative MPs threaten to rebel or abstain next week as Johnson struggles with fallout from No 10 party scandal

Downing Street is facing a damaging revolt over planned Covid restrictions after dozens of Tory backbenchers threatened to rebel or abstain in fury over the proposed new rules and Boris Johnson’s handling of the Christmas party scandal.

With at least 30 Conservative MPs already expected to vote against regulations on masks, home working and vaccine passports, and many more now vowing to stay away from Tuesday’s vote, the prime minister could be left relying on Labour support to win.

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Stricter measures than plan B may be needed to rein in UK’s Omicron growth

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Analysis: scientists say home working makes sense but voice fears over advice to go ahead with parties amid steep trajectory in cases

Work from home, but keep going to Christmas parties: Boris Johnson’s advice has prompted questions about the logic behind plan B and left a lingering sense of confusion about the scale of the threat posed by the Omicron variant. So does the plan stand up to scrutiny?

Scientists say that making working from home a first line of defence, ahead of social gatherings, is not necessarily a frivolous choice. In the hierarchy of measures that can be deployed, working from home is an effective way to bring down people’s daily contacts and is relatively painless economically. However, many fear that the threat posed by Omicron will require more than the first line of defence and that plan B does not go far enough.

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South African Covid cases up 255% in a week as Omicron spreads

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Private healthcare provider says symptoms in country’s fourth wave are far milder than in previous waves

Covid cases in South Africa have surged by 255% in the past seven days but there is mounting anecdotal evidence that infections with the Omicron variant are provoking milder symptoms than in previous waves.

According to a South African private healthcare provider, the recent rise in infections – which includes the Omicron and Delta variants – has been accompanied by a much smaller increase in admissions to intensive care beds, echoing an earlier report from the country’s National Institute for Communicable Disease (NICD).

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CDC chief says Omicron is ‘mild’ as early data comes in on US spread of variant

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Agency is working on detailed analysis of what the new mutant form of the coronavirus might hold for the US

More than 40 people in the US have been found to be infected with the Omicron variant so far, and more than three-quarters of them had been vaccinated, the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said. But she added nearly all of them were only mildly ill.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said the data is very limited and the agency is working on a more detailed analysis of what the new mutant form of the coronavirus might hold for the US.

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Italian who presented fake arm for Covid jab ‘has since been vaccinated’

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Dr Guido Russo says stunt was protest against vaccine mandates and jab is ‘best weapon we have’ against virus

An Italian dentist who presented a fake arm for a Covid vaccine says he has since been jabbed and that the vaccine “is the best weapon we have against this terrible disease”.

Dr Guido Russo faces possible criminal fraud charges for having worn an arm made out of silicone when he first showed up at a vaccine hub in the northern city of Biella. Italy has required doctors and nurses to be vaccinated since earlier this year.

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Covid live: people in Scotland urged to cancel Christmas parties; UK reports another 50,867 cases and 148 deaths

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People and businesses in Scotland been urged not to go ahead with parties; UK daily case tally remains above 50,000

Cuba has detected its first case of the Omicron Covid variant, according to Cuban state media agency ACN.

The case was identified in a person who had travelled from Mozambique.

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Bondi backpackers hostel Noah’s locked down due to Covid scare as NSW reports 420 cases

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NSW police confirm health department requested assistance at Sydney venue

A Bondi Beach backpackers hostel in Sydney has been placed into lockdown for a second time due to fears of a Covid outbreak.

It is not yet known how many people were staying at Noah’s backpackers hostel or whether the Omicron strain of the virus was present.

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Debacle over No 10 Christmas party ‘threatens efforts to control pandemic’

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Scientists say rule-breaking ‘could damage public compliance behaviours when they are more important than ever’

The debacle over the No 10 Christmas party threatens to undermine efforts to control the Covid pandemic at a time when the Omicron variant is fuelling fears of an imminent and major wave of disease, say scientists.

A so-called Cummings effect last year led to “negative and lasting consequences” on public trust following the lockdown-busting trips made by Boris Johnson’s aide, Dominic Cummings, researchers found.

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Omicron spreads to 57 countries but too early to tell if variant more infectious, WHO says

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World Health Organization says new Covid variant spreading rapidly in South Africa, with cases doubling in the past week

The Omicron variant of Covid-19 has now been reported in 57 countries and continues to spread rapidly in South Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

But the latest epidemiological report from WHO says given the Delta variant remains dominant, particularly in Europe and the US, it is still too early to draw any conclusions about the global impact of Omicron.

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Barnaby Joyce, Australia’s deputy PM, tests positive for Covid while visiting US

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Nationals leader is experiencing mild symptoms and will remain in isolation until further advice

Australia’s deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, has tested positive to Covid-19 while on a visit to the United States.

The government says Joyce – who was in London earlier this week and met with the British justice secretary, Dominic Raab, and the Australian high commissioner to the UK, George Brandis – will isolate in the US until it is safe for him to return to Australia.

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UK Covid live: Met police will not investigate No 10 Christmas party allegations

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Latest updates: Scotland Yard cites ‘absence of evidence’, as PM triggers plan B Covid restrictions

Downing Street sources are saying this morning that “no decisions have been made” on a move to plan B. But, frankly, an FT story carries more credibility in the Westminster media village.

Ben Riley-Smith, the Telegraph political editor, thinks the timing of such a move would be suspicious.

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Met police say they will not investigate Downing Street Christmas party

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Force cites policy of not investigating past alleged breaches of Covid rules and lack of evidence

The Metropolitan police has said it will not investigate the Downing Street Christmas party widely reported to have been held last year.

In a much awaited statement, the force said it had a policy of not retrospectively investigating alleged breaches of coronavirus laws.

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Allegra Stratton resigns after No 10 Christmas party video

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Boris Johnson ‘sorry to lose’ spokesperson for climate summit who was seen in footage joking about party during lockdown

Allegra Stratton has stepped down as the government’s spokesperson for the Cop26 climate summit after footage emerged of her joking about a party at Downing Street during the peak of lockdown rules in December last year.

Boris Johnson told a coronavirus press briefing on Wednesday that Stratton had been an “outstanding spokeswoman … I am very sorry to lose her”. But he added: “I take responsibility for everything that happens in this government and I have throughout the pandemic.”

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Three doses of Pfizer vaccine likely to protect against Omicron infection, tests suggest

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Initial findings indicate stark reduction in protection against new Covid variant from two vaccine doses

Three doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are likely to protect against infection with the Omicron variant but two doses may not, according to laboratory data that will increase pressure to speed up booster programmes.

Tests using antibodies in blood samples have given some of the first insights into how far Omicron escapes immunity, showing a stark drop-off in the predicted protection against infection or any type of disease for people who have had two doses. The findings suggest that, for Omicron, Pfizer/BioNTech should now be viewed as a “three-dose vaccine”.

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Finnish PM apologises for staying out clubbing despite Covid exposure

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Sanna Marin says she should have checked guidance given to her after her foreign minister tested positive

Finland’s prime minister has come under sustained criticism after it was revealed she stayed out dancing until the early hours on the weekend despite knowing she had been exposed to Covid-19.

Sanna Marin, 36, apologised on Monday after a gossip magazine published photos of her at a Helsinki nightclub on Saturday night until almost four in the morning, hours after her foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, tested positive for coronavirus.

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Why is there a row in the UK about Boris Johnson and Christmas parties?

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Controversy centres on alleged get-togethers at Downing Street last year when London was under strict lockdown

On Tuesday last week, the British tabloid newspaper, the Mirror, published a story that claimed parties had been held at Johnson’s Downing Street residence in the run-up to Christmas last year.

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Anger as Jair Bolsonaro to allow unvaccinated visitors into Brazil

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There are fears the decision will reverse the gains made by a successful vaccination campaign

The Brazilian government has been accused of seeking to turn the South American country into a haven for unvaccinated tourists after it shunned calls – including from its own health regulator – to demand proof of vaccination from visitors.

The decision – announced on Tuesday by the health minister, Marcelo Queiroga – sparked anger in a nation that has lost more than 615,000 lives to a Covid outbreak the president, Jair Bolsonaro, stands accused of catastrophically mishandling.

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‘It’s hypocrisy, pure and simple’: growing public anger over No 10 party

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A grieving daughter and a publican prosecuted for breaching rules are among those furious at apparent flouting of rules

On 23 December last year, the day after Downing Street aides were recorded laughing about how they could pretend that a party at No 10 was a “cheese and wine” gathering, a large contingent of police officers arrived at the London Tavern pub in Hackney, east London. James Kearns, the owner, was hosting Christmas drinks for workers at a scaffolding company he also runs.

“There were 15 of us,” he said on Wednesday. “About 20 of the police showed up, absolutely hammering on the doors. We all hid in the toilets, but they found us.” This week, the case went before a magistrate. “And we’ve all been fined £100 each.”

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