UK aims for 500,000 jabs a day in bid to outpace Omicron variant Ministers are set to ramp up vaccinations to 3.5m a week as the minimum gap for boosters was cut to three months. Confirmed Omicron cases rose to 11 in England and Scotland on Monday, with scientific advisers braced for hundreds more to be detected in the next week or so. From Tuesday, masks will be mandatory on public transport including airports and stations and in shops – including hair salons and takeaways but not pubs or restaurants. The NHS is set to confirm an expansion of the vaccine programme this week. Hi everyone, it’s Samantha Lock here, ready to take you through all the Covid news. Let’s start off with some updates out of Australia. NSW and Victoria have reported their Covid data for the day. Victoria records 917 Covid cases and six deaths and NSW records 179 cases and three deaths. There are five cases of the new Omicron confirmed in the country – all are in quarantine. There are four in Sydney (after two more were confirmed late yesterday) and one in the Northern Territory. All five people had been vaccinated. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease official of the US, told CNN on Monday it could not yet be predicted if the Omicron Covid-19 variant will become the dominant variant in the country. Fauci also reiterated that the US was unlikely to impose further travel restrictions. The mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, has urged New Yorkers to take up vaccine and booster offers and wear face masks, while claiming that there are currently zero cases of Omicron in the city. Acccording to the New York Times, de Blasio said on Monday that he was emphasising the city health department’s standing advice that unvaccinated as well as vaccinated New Yorkers wear masks in public indoor settings, although he has has so far not made them mandatory in all indoor public spaces. “We’re doubling down on it, basically,” de Blasio said. “It’s time to re-up that advisory and make it very, very clear this is a smart thing to do at this point.” Masks are already required on mass transit and in hospitals and schools. The mayor said the rules for indoor dining would remain unchanged, with vaccinations required for guests, and that planned New Year’s Eve celebrations in Times Square would not be cancelled. The Omicron Covid-19 variant could hurt global growth prospects while also pushing prices higher, rating agencies Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service said on Monday, after the World Health Organization said the variant carried a very high risk of infection surges. “The Omicron variant poses risks to global growth and inflation, especially as it comes during a period of already stretched supply chains, elevated inflation and labour market shortages,” Elena Duggar, associate managing director at Moody’s, told Reuters. The variant is also likely to hit demand during the upcoming holiday travel and spending season, according to Duggar. “If the new variant affects global market risk appetite, it would cause further financial stress for debt issuers with large financing needs. For example, emerging market countries that rely on international market borrowing may face heightened refinancing risks,” she said. Fitch Ratings said separately that it was too soon to incorporate the effects of the Omicron coronavirus variant into its economic growth forecasts until more is known about its transmissibility and severity. “We currently believe that another large, synchronised global downturn, such as that seen in the first half of 2020, is highly unlikely but the rise in inflation will complicate macroeconomic responses if the new variant takes hold,” Fitch said. More countries closed borders on Monday, casting a shadow over economic recovery from the two-year pandemic. Big airlines acted swiftly to protect their hubs by curbing passenger travel from southern Africa, fearing that a spread of the new variant would trigger restrictions from other destinations beyond the immediately affected regions, industry sources said. The experience with past variants suggests that, even with some restrictions on international travel, the spread of the Omicron variant may be hard to stop, Duggar said, adding: “Should the new variant lead to another rising wave of Covid infections, the hardest-hit economies will be those with lower vaccination rates, higher dependence on tourism and lower capacity to offer fiscal and monetary policy support to offset the growth impact of the new wave of infections.” Cuba will tighten coronavirus restrictions from 4 December for passengers from certain African countries over concerns about the Omicron coronavirus variant, the country’s government said on Monday. This from Reuters: Travellers arriving from South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Malawi, and Mozambique will be allowed to enter Cuba, the country’s health ministry said, but will be required to comply with multiple precautionary measures, including proof of vaccination, three PCR tests and a seven-day quarantine. Travellers from other sub-Saharan African nations, as well as Belgium, Israel, Hong Kong, Egypt and Turkey will be required to take two PCR tests, the ministry said. Concerns over the Omicron variant are flaring in Cuba just two weeks after the Caribbean island nation reopened its borders to international visitors. Cuba, whose economy depends on tourism, eased entry requirements after inoculating most of its people with a Covid-19 vaccine developed domestically. New infections have dropped off sharply in recent weeks, as have deaths from Covid-19. Fines of up to £6,400 for not wearing face covering in shops and on public transport in England As part of targeted measures to prevent the spread of the new Covid-19 variant Omicron, from 4am on 30 November, people in England will be required by law to wear a face covering in shops, enclosed shopping centres, banks, post offices, and on public transport. Some individuals will be exempt from doing so, such as children under the age of 11, shop and public transport staff, police officers and emergency responders, plus anyone with a reasonable excuse, such as a disability or physical or mental illness. People will not be required to wear masks in hospitality settings, and photography studios are also exempt. People who are not wearing a face covering where they have to can be fined in form of a fixed penalty notice and ordered to pay £200, rising to £400 for the second such offence, £800 for the third, up to a maximum of £6,400 for a sixth or subsequent fixed penalty notice. In the 24 hours to Sunday, 22,304 first doses of Covid vaccine were administered in the UK, taking the total of first doses delivered to 50,941,327 as of 28 November, government figures show. Some 46,341,057 second doses have been delivered as of Sunday, an increase of 29,445. A combined total of 17,581,331 booster and third doses have also been given, a day-on-day rise of 450,480. Separate totals for booster and third doses are not available. Hello, I’m Jedidajah Otte and I’ll be taking over for the next few hours. As always, don’t hesitate to get in touch with updates, tips and pointers, you can message me on Twitter @JedySays or you can email me. Summary Here are the main developments we’ve reported on the blog so far today: The UK announced that all adults would be eligible for a booster jab as part of the country’s response to the omicron variant Poland, Ghana and Norway announced new restrictions on travel and socialising to tackle the spread of omicron Sweden, Canada and Spain reported their first cases linked to the omicron variant A big jump in coronavirus cases was recorded in France, after the health minister said the country had entered the fifth wave of the pandemic last week The US said it didn’t plan to introduce further travel restrictions, and advocated vaccinations, boosters and mask-wearing as preventative measures against the omicron variant, which has not yet been detected in the country Thanks for tuning in today, I’m tapping out but the blog will stay open to monitor further coronavirus-related developments around the world under Jedidajah Otte’s watch. Big jump in coronavirus cases recorded in France France registered its biggest jump in coronavirus-related hospital admissions since the spring, according to official data. Reuters reports: The number of patients in intensive care units jumped by 117 to 1,749 people, the biggest increase since March-April, when the ICU number rose by more than 100 per day on several days. The number of people in hospital with the virus jumped by 470 to 9,860, the biggest one-day increase since March 29. Compared with a week ago, the number of Covid-19 patients was up more than 18%, the biggest week-on-week increase this year. The French health minister last week said that France has entered a fifth wave of the pandemic. France is registering nearly 30,000 new cases a day on average. Sweden reports first omicron case One case of the Omicron coronavirus variant has been detected in Sweden, the Public Health Agency said on Monday. Reuters reports: The case was detected in a test taken a little over a week ago from a person who had travelled from South Africa, the agency said in a statement. US President Joe Biden has said the omicron variant “is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic”. The best protection is to get vaccinated and receive a booster when eligible, he said, urging all Americans to do so as quickly as possible. Although no cases of the omicron variant have yet been found in the US, he said: “Sooner or later, we are going to see new cases of this new variant here in the United States and we’re going to have to face this new threat just as we have faced the ones that came before it.” In terms of preventative measures, he encouraged Americans to wear masks indoors and in public places, but said that further travel bans were unlikely. US President Joe Biden is poised to speak on plans to tackle the threat of the omicron variant. Spain detects first omicron case Spain has detected its first case of the omicron variant of the coronavirus in a 51-year-old man who arrived from South Africa on Sunday after a layover in Amsterdam, according to Madrid’s regional health authorities. Reuters reports: The microbiology unit at Madrid’s Gregorio Maranon hospital, which sequenced and confirmed the new variant, added in a separate tweet that the patient was in fair condition with light symptoms. Ghana’s government is ordering access to beaches, restaurants, night clubs and stadiums be limited to people who have been vaccinated against Covid, as part of its efforts to fight the spread of the virus, AP reports. While the Omicron variant has not yet been identified in the west African country, the government health service is “taking steps to protect the country towards the Christmas season,” Ghana’s health service director-general Patrick Kuma-Aboagye said. At least 5.45 million people of Ghana’s population of 31 million have received at least one vaccine dose. Vaccines being administered in Ghana include AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson. Ghana’s land borders are currently closed and air travellers are required to have a PCR test within 72 hours of arrival and antigen tests upon arrival. The country aims to administer 20 million doses of vaccines by the end of 2021, Kuma-Aboagye said in a statement issued on Sunday. “Among Covid-19 deaths at the Ghana Infectious Diseases Center, 12.5% of the deaths were persons who had been vaccinated (they also had severe underlying medical conditions). The rest, 87.5%, hadn’t been vaccinated,” he said. Ghana has recorded more than 1,209 deaths and 130,920 cases of Covid-19.