Category Archives: Coronavirus

Omicron cases climb amid Sydney cluster; Qld to quarantine Adelaide travellers – as it happened

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South Australia announces rule changes for interstate arrivals as ACT records first case of variant. This blog is now closed

Just noting we are still waiting on the SA press conference to begin.

There’s a press conference with the South Australian premier, Steven Marshall, and CHO Nicola Spurrier at 9.45am SA time (so roughly half an hour from now).

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Covid: Biden says to beat Omicron variant ‘we have to shut it down worldwide’ – as it happened

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After their remarks, the members of the taskforce took a handful of questions from reporters. Fauci was asked when scientists will have a better understanding of the risks posed by the Omicron variant. He said they would have a clearer picture in the “next few weeks”.

But he said it could take longer to understand the impact of Omicron and whether it will overtake Delta as the dominant strain in the US.

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Labour MPs report Boris Johnson to police over 2020 Christmas parties

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Met asked to investigate reports of alleged breaches of Covid lockdown rules at No 10

The prime minister has been reported to the police by Labour MPs over allegations there were at least two parties in Downing Street during lockdown restrictions last year.

Neil Coyle, Labour MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, wrote to the Met police commissioner, Cressida Dick, asking her to investigate reports that the prime minister spoke at a leaving do in November and also allowed a staff Christmas party to go ahead in December.

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Act now against Omicron to stop new Covid wave, UK ministers warned

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Government privately being urged by advisers to tell people to work from home as UK cases of variant hit 134

UK ministers have been warned they cannot wait for new research on the Omicron variant and must act now to prevent a potentially “very significant wave of infections” that risks overwhelming the NHS.

A 75 further cases of the variant have been identified in England, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said on Friday night, bringing the total number of UK confirmed cases to 134. The head of the agency, Dr Jenny Harries, said: “We have started to see cases where there are no links to travel, suggesting that we have a small amount of community transmission.”

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Omicron driving record rate of Covid infection in South African province

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Officials say variant’s R number is believed to be above 6, though most cases are mild and no deaths reported

The pace of Covid infections in the South African province of Gauteng is outstripping anything seen in previous waves, and officials say Omicron is now the dominant variant.

Angelique Coetzee, the chair of the South African Medical Association, said Omicron’s R number, measuring its ability to spread, was believed to be above 6. The R number for Delta, the dominant variant globally, is estimated to be above 5.

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Does the Omicron variant mean Covid is going to become more transmissible?

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As new strain dampens idea pandemic might be diminishing, what does the future hold for coronavirus?

When scientists predicted, months ago, that Covid-19 could be entering an endemic phase, many felt ready for the crisis period of the pandemic to be over. The tantalising suggestion that coronavirus might, at some foreseeable point, be just another seasonal cold felt welcome. But the emergence of the Omicron variant, just weeks before Christmas, shows this is not guaranteed to be a smooth or quick transition.

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Covid news: 75 more cases of Omicron variant found in England; Ireland announces new restrictions – as it happened

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More than 100 cases of new variant have now been found in England; Strict social distancing will be required in Ireland’s bars and restaurants with mandatory table service and a maximum of six people per table

California is reporting its second confirmed case of the Omicron variant in as many days.

The Los Angeles County public health department says a full vaccinated county resident is self-isolating after apparently contracting the infection during a trip to South Africa last month.

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Easy access to tests could play a key role in fighting the Omicron variant

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Experts applaud Biden’s plan to expand testing but wonder if the effort goes far enough to stop the spread of the virus

US infectious disease experts largely agree with the Biden administration’s newly announced emphasis on Covid-19 testing in the wake of the emergence of the Omicron variant, but questions remain over whether the president’s plan goes far enough to ensure that testing stops the spread of the virus.

President Joe Biden announced new actions to combat the coronavirus in the US on Thursday, including a nationwide campaign encouraging vaccine boosters; a forthcoming rule requiring private insurance to reimburse the cost of at-home testing; a pledge to provide 50m free at-home tests to health centers and rural clinics for those not covered by private insurance; and a requirement that travelers to the United States, regardless of nationality or vaccination status, provide proof of a negative Covid-19 test within one day of boarding flights.

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India’s ‘pencil village’ counts the cost of Covid school closures

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Ukhoo village in Kashmir supplies 90% of wood used in the country’s pencils, but the industry, a major employer in the area, has seen a dramatic drop in demand

School closures in India during the pandemic have left their mark on more than the children who have seen delays to their learning. In one Kashmiri village the impact has been catastrophic on employment.

Pick up a pencil anywhere across India and it is likely to come from the poplar trees of Ukhoo.

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Fair Work Commission rules BHP vaccine mandate unlawful due to lack of consultation

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About 50 workers at the Mt Arthur coalmine had been stood down without pay over the mandate

The Fair Work Commission has ruled a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for all workers at BHP’s Mt Arthur coalmine was unlawful because the company did not consult adequately with its workers.

Approximately 50 mine workers were stood down without pay last month after they were told they would be required to have had at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine to enter the work site after 9 November, and that they would need to be fully vaccinated by 31 January next year.

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‘She didn’t deserve to die’: Kenya fights tuberculosis in Covid’s shadow

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For the first time in a decade deaths from TB are rising, with the curable disease killing 20,000 Kenyans last year. Now testing ‘ATMs’ and other innovations are helping to find ‘missing cases’

One day in May last year, Violet Chemesunte, a community health volunteer in Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi, got a call from a colleague worried about a woman she had visited who kept coughing.

She asked if Chemesunte could go round and convince the 37-year-old woman, a single mother to three young children, to seek medical help. She suspected tuberculosis (TB), and feared it might already be too late.

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‘Electric vibe’: Auckland celebrates end of lockdown with brunch and traffic gridlock

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Vaccinated people in New Zealand’s largest city can now go to the pub for the first time in over 100 days

In Auckland, nature was healing. The ungroomed lined up for their eyebrow appointments. Bars flung open their doors with the promise of free drinks. Locals posted photos of their flat whites and brunch menus. The city’s sky tower was lit up for the first day of the “traffic light” reopening. And, in perhaps the truest sign that the gridlock-plagued city was on its pathway to normalcy, four lanes of the southern motorway were bumper to bumper.

The traffic light system, announced by prime minister Jacinda Ardern in late November, ends lockdowns in favour of restrictions on the unvaccinated. The red, orange and green levels depend on vaccination rates and the level of strain on the health system, but even at red – the strictest level – businesses are fully open to the vaccinated, with some restrictions on gathering size.

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Covid booster shots significantly strengthen immunity, trial finds

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Jabs offer far higher protection than that needed to prevent hospitalisation and death, Cov-Boost trial lead says

Covid booster shots can dramatically strengthen the body’s immune defences, according to a study that raises hopes of preventing another wave of severe disease driven by the Omicron variant.

In a study published in the Lancet, researchers on the UK-based Cov-Boost trial measured immune responses in nearly 3,000 people who received one of seven Covid-19 boosters or a control jab two to three months after their second dose of either AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccine.

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UK Covid live: PM says people should not cancel Christmas events after highest cases since 17 July recorded

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Latest updates: Boris Johnson says ‘no need’ to cancel Christmas events as UK reports 53,945 daily coronavirus cases

Jeremy Corbyn posted a tweet this morning promoting a virtual Stop the War fundraiser this Christmas, not an in-person one. So my earlier post (now removed) about this being an example of a party going ahead that might not meet with George Freeman’s approval was completely wrong. I apologise for the mistake.

The Cabinet Office has been fined £500,000 for accidentally disclosing the postal addresses of the 2020 new year honours list recipients online, in breach of data protection laws.

On 27 December 2019 the Cabinet Office published a file on GOV.UK containing the names and unredacted addresses of more than 1,000 people announced in the new year honours list. People from a wide range of professions across the UK were affected, including individuals with a high public profile.

After becoming aware of the data breach, the Cabinet Office removed the weblink to the file. However, the file was still cached and accessible online to people who had the exact webpage address.

When data breaches happen, they have real-life consequences. In this case, more than 1,000 people were affected. At a time when they should have been celebrating and enjoying the announcement of their honour, they were faced with the distress of their personal details being exposed.

The Cabinet Office’s complacency and failure to mitigate the risk of a data breach meant that hundreds of people were potentially exposed to the risk of identity fraud and threats to their personal safety.

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How probable is it Omicron Covid variant will take hold in UK?

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Analysis: UK’s early vaccine deployment and use of different vaccines from South Africa mean it’s too soon to say

Omicron is causing consternation around the world, with the variant found to be behind an exponential rise in Covid cases in South Africa. Yet with just 42 cases confirmed in the UK so far, and most European countries seeing numbers in the double rather than triple figures, could this be a tentative sign the variant may fail to take hold outside southern Africa? The bottom line is, it is too soon to say.

One issue is that there are important differences that make it difficult to compare the situations in South Africa and beyond.

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Germany could make Covid vaccination mandatory, says Merkel

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Outgoing chancellor also announces lockdown measures for unvaccinated and says ‘act of national solidarity’ required

Vaccination could become mandatory in Germany from February, Angela Merkel has said, as she announced what her successor as chancellor, Olaf Scholz, described as “a lockdown of the unvaccinated”.

As more EU countries confirmed cases of the Omicron variant, which the bloc’s health agency said could make up more than half of all infections on the continent within months, Merkel described the situation as “very serious”.

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Omicron seems to carry higher Covid reinfection risk, says South Africa

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Scientists warn of higher rate of repeat infections but say vaccines appear to protect against serious illness

The Omicron variant of Covid-19 appears to be reinfecting people at three times the rate of previous strains, experts in South Africa have said, as public health officials and scientists from around the world closely monitor developments in the country where it was first identified.

As the EU’s public health agency warned that Omicron could cause more than half of all new Covid infections in Europe within the next few months, evidence was emerging, however, that vaccines still appear to offer protection against serious illness.

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Tell us about the people you have lost to Covid

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We would like to hear from people all over the world about the friends and family they have lost to the pandemic

The end of December will mark two years since the world discovered an outbreak of a new virus in Wuhan, China. What followed was a difficult time for countries across the globe and many lives have been lost since the beginning of the pandemic.

Ahead of the second anniversary of Covid, we would like to hear your tributes to the people you have lost to the virus during the last two years. Wherever you live in the world, we want to hear about your loved one and what they mean to you as part of our coverage.

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Joe Biden to announce nationwide coronavirus battle plan

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Plans include a drive to encourage vaccine boosters, expansion of at-home tests and tighter restrictions on international travel

Joe Biden is set to announce new actions to combat the coronavirus, including a nationwide campaign encouraging vaccine boosters, an expansion of at-home tests and tighter restrictions on international travel.

Buffeted by the emergence of the Omicron variant and a political backlash from Republicans, the US president will visit the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, on Thursday and lay out a pandemic battle plan for the winter months.

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Covid: scientists find possible trigger for AstraZeneca jab blood clots

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Experts hope better understanding of rare side effect of vaccine could help ‘turn the tide’ on pandemic

Scientists believe they may have found the trigger behind the extremely rare blood clot complications stemming from the Oxford/AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine.

According to a team of researchers from Cardiff and the US, the reaction can be traced to the way the adenovirus used by the vaccine to shuttle the coronavirus’s genetic material into cells binds with a specific protein in the blood, known as platelet factor 4 (PF4).

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