Disparities in the vaccine rollout see some children in England three times more likely to be vaccinated that others, House of Commons library figures revealed. London lags behind, with just under 20% of 12- to 15-year-olds in the borough of Hackney having recieved at least one shot. South-east England is the only region where over half of this cohort have been inoculated. Labour have attacked Boris Johnson’s administration over the figures as the Omicron variant circulates, with Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s new shadow education secretary, saying “the government’s lacklustre approach is putting children’s education at risk of further disruption.” “The Conservatives have been complacent and children are paying the price. The government must get a grip and stop neglecting children’s education,” Phillipson said. “Labour has been urging ministers to use every measure from pop-up and walk-in clinics to bringing back volunteers and retired clinicians to ramp-up vaccine rollout. This must come alongside finally introducing the ventilation in schools that Sage recommended well over a year ago.” My colleague Richard Adams, the Guardian’s education editor, has the full story here. In the UK, Labour’s leader of the opposition Keir Starmer called for a “renewed national effort” to deliver Covid vaccine booster shots and told prime minister Boris Johnson to “get a grip” to reignite maximum vaccination speed. Labour warned on Sunday the programme had slowed, as an average of 435,542 jabs a day are being administered compared with a peak of 602,265 a day in March. “With the number of vaccinations down a quarter from the peak earlier this year, we simply cannot afford for the government to take its eye off the ball in speeding up the rollout of the booster programme,” Starmer said. “The prime minister needs to break the habit of his tenure by stepping up and getting a grip.” Stamer urged the unvaccinated to get inoculated and said it was “frustrating and worrying” medical workers are reporting hospital beds filling up with people without the shot. About 11% of people in the UK over 12 have not yet been vaccinated, according to government data. Almost 65% of people over 12 have not yet had third or booster shots. Johnson says all adults will be offered a booster by the end of January. Interesting New York Times report here, about what might be “patient zero” of the Omicron variant in the US – a man who tested positive on 23 November. The variant was only later reported to the World Health Organization by South Africa on 24 November. But 30-year-old health care analyst Peter McGinn from Minneapolis already had it, sequencing released on 2 December showed. It’s impossible to know how McGinn picked it up. But he did attend the 53,000-strong Anime NYC convention last month. What we do know is that community transmission was taking place before the highly mutated strain even had its name. The variant, throught to be highly infectious, has outpaced public health officials and is now present in at least 15 US states. Germany’s new government wants to make Covid vaccination mandatory for workers of hospitals, nursing homes and other medical staff by 16 March, according to draft legislation seen by Reuters. As German infections have climbed, hesitations about losing medical staff have subsided and support for vaccine mandates has grown. New cases in Germany have more than quadrupled in seven weeks, from 8,420 on Saturday 16 October to 43,500 on Saturday 4 December. The new coalition – Social Democrats, Greens and Free Democrats, with Olaf Scholz becoming chancellor – will take office on Wednesday and introduce the legislation to parliament in the coming week. Scholz, who takes over from Angela Merkel after her 16 years as chancellor, has so far ruled out lockdowns to suppress the new wave and looks set to bank on vaccination. The legislation would also grant permission for dentists, vets and pharmacists to administer vaccines. Germany seeks to vaccinate or offer boosters to 30 million people by Christmas. Brazil confirms 4,844 cases and 66 deaths Brazil’s health ministry said a further 4,844 Covid infections were detected on Sunday, taking the seven-day average to 8,884 new cases a day. Another 66 people did from Covid-related causes, down from 221 on Friday. (Reported figures are lower at weekends.) That means the seven-day average for daily deaths is 194 people a day. Brazil has the second-highest death toll in the world behind the US. Over 615,000 people have died from the virus. A congressional panel recommended president Jair Bolsonaro be charged with “crimes against humanity” in October, in a major report based on a six-month inquiry into his handling of the pandemic. Bolsonaro has consistently opposed measures to suppress the virus. Lawmakers wrote he was responsible for the deaths of more than 300,000 Brazilians and urged authorities to imprison him. “Many of these deaths were preventable,” Renan Calheiros, centrist Brazilian senator and the report’s lead author, told the New York Times in October. “I am personally convinced that he is responsible for escalating the slaughter.” After experiencing cases that topped 70,000 and 80,000 a day in June, Brazil’s infections over the past few months have remained low relative to its previous waves. About 64% of the population is double-vaccinated, according to Our World In Data. Interesting analysis piece from my colleague Jessica Elgot here. She writes that, coming up to the UK government’s 18 December deadline for outlining Christmas holiday guidance, changes to cabinet and public mood from last year make further restrictions less likely. One government advisor has warned prime minister Boris Johnson has “all the eggs in one basket.” And today Mark Woolhouse, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M), said ministers have already left it too late to make a substantial difference to a potential wave of Omicron cases – measures now would be like “shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted,” he said. There is a difference in the personnel around the table making the call this year: Steve Barclay and Sajid Javid have replaced Michael Gove and Matt Hancock, who were the key voices for caution last December. Gove was a particular champion of vaccination certification and more sceptical of calls for returns to the office, while Hancock spoke forcefully about the pressures the NHS could experience. All of those contributions appear absent from the debate now. Johnson and Javid are firm believers that a pact was made with the public that the vaccine was the way out of the pandemic – so the government has directed its firepower into turbocharging the booster vaccine campaign. Javid will also direct the NHS to offer new antiviral treatment to the most vulnerable to take at home if they have a positive diagnosis, rather than wait to be admitted to hospital with the virus. One adviser for the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) described that tactic this week as “all the eggs in one basket”, with hopes pinned almost entirely on scientific intervention to halt the spread of the variant rather than human behaviour. Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has reasserted that it is “disappointing” and “dismaying” that countries around the globe continue to block flights from southern African countries over the Omicron varant, which was first sequenced in South Africa last month, even with negative tests. The WHO has echoed comments from Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, opposing travel bans. Here’s the latest UK infections in context throughout the pandemic, largely above 40,000 a day in recent weeks – sometimes nudging over 50,000. But here’s a look at why ministers are less hawkish on lockdowns and restrictions than last year. The vaccine rollout has broken the link between infections and hospitalisations, reducing the risk the National Health Service will be overwhelmed. The Omicron variant however – with its more than 30 mutations to the spike protein suggesting increased transmissiveness – could alter that picture. We are still too early to confidently tell how Omicron’s severity differs from the Delta variant, and whether it will escape existing vaccines. The UK government has given the date of 18 December to decide final guidance over the Christmas period. In the meantime the prime minister Boris Johnson hopes, like in France, an acceleration of the vaccine booster drive can stave off potential lockdowns. France reports 42,252 Covid infections and 29 deaths France recorded 42,252 new Covid infections in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said, a percentage change of 188% from the 14,646 cases recorded on Sunday three weeks ago. A further 29 people died from Covid-related illness, down from 127 on Friday. (Reported figures tend to be lower at weekends.) The seven-day average of deaths from the virus is 92 people a day. France has experienced a dramatic climb in new cases since early November. Saturday saw new cases jump by above 50,000. So far ministers have not opted for the return of lockdown to beat back infections, but Jean-Francois Delfraissy, who heads the scientific council advising the government, said on Thursday they could be “a tool” if the situation worsens drastically. Instead, health minister Olivier Veran said last week vaccine booster shots would open to all adults – not just over-65s, health workers and immunocompromised people – to counter the new wave of infections. Singapore detects 552 Covid cases and 13 deaths Singapore detected 552 Covid infections on Sunday, taking the seven-day average to 971 cases a day. The city state confirmed another 13 people had died from Covid-related causes in the past 24 hours, compared with 11 the same day last week. The country’s virus death toll is now 759. After ending its zero Covid strategy of eliminating the virus in autumn, Singapore saw surging infections in September, with daily cases peaking in late October at above 4,000. Infections have since fallen to an average of about 1,000 a day. Five senior health officers in Jordan were sentenced to three years in prison on Sunday, for causing the deaths of ten Covid patients in March following an oxygen outage. A court found the director of a state hospital and four senior aides – in the city of Salt – were responsible for the deaths, according to state media, after they failed to act for nearly an hour after Covid ward oxygen ran out. The event sparked anti-government protests across the country and provoked the resignation of health minister Nathir Obeida. Prime minister Bisher al Khasawneh said his government bore full responsibility for the incident. Reuters has further details: Shortly after the deaths, King Abdullah visited the hospital and publicly scolded health officials in the corridor of the hospital, where police were deployed to hold back hundreds of angry relatives and protesters who were encircling the compound. The royal visit was intended to defuse tensions in a country where anger with the authorities has in the past triggered widespread civil unrest. Since the incident, the authorities have dismissed scores of officials in state hospitals in a campaign to curb mismanagement and perceived corruption. It has poured tens of millions of dollars to train and recruit health workers in goverment hospitals that face shortages of qualified staff. A man travelling from Turkey to Tunisia has tested positive for the Omicron strain, in Tunisia’s first case of the highly mutated variant. The man, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, arrived at Tunis International airport from Istanbul on Friday and tested positive for Covid, AP reports. The sample was confirmed as Omicron on Sunday by health authorities after screening at the Pasteur Institute for Public Health. The man’s brother is quarantining and has so far tested negative for Covid. Other travellers have also been instructed to quarantine. Tunisia restricted travel after the strain emerged, for instance requiring travellers aged over six from 1 December to submit a negative test result less than 48 hours before flying. Mandatory quarantine for the unvaccinated was extended from seven to ten days. Russia records 32,602 infections and 1,206 deaths Russia confirmed 32,602 new Covid infections on Sunday, largely flat on the 32,786 new cases reported on Sunday last week. Another 1,206 people died from Covid-related causes, the Moscow Times reported, compared to 1,190 deaths this time last week. Russia recorded its deadliest month in decades in October. Russia’s total excess deaths since the start of the pandemic are now over 810,000. Russia experienced soaring cases over autumn, regularly breaking its record case tally. Daily cases peaked above 40,000 in early November before sliding down, but recent numbers remain above 30,000 a day. Poland confirms 22,389 cases and 45 deaths Poland detected 22,389 positive Covid infections in the past 24 hours, local media Polskie Radio reported, rising 9% on the 20,574 new cases on Sunday last week. A further 45 people died from Covid-related causes, down from 504 on Saturday – as reported figures tend to be lower at weekends. On Wednesday Poland recorded 570 Covid deaths, the highest reported daily figure since April. Poland has seen surging cases since October. Mazowieckie province, home to the capital Warsaw, continues to be the engine driving cases with 3,469 on Sunday. The government imposed a flight ban on seven African countries after the emergence of the Omicron variant, and introduced mandates that public venues including hotels, churches and restaurants could only be half-full from 1-17 December. Brussels protest against Covid restrictions turns violent Protests in Brussels, Belgium against government restrictions to suppress Covid turned violent on Sunday, with police firing teargas and water cannon at demonstrators who threw cobblestones and fireworks. The “Liberty Walk Act 2” protest opposed restrictions imposed in October requiring a Covid pass for people to enter public venues like bars and restaraunts – as the government tries to put a lid on the country’s surging Covid cases. Violence also erupted two weeks ago in a similar protest that drew 35,000 people. Sunday’s numbers were closer to a few thousand, Reuters reported. Belgium’s seven-day average of new Covid cases was 17,976 a day on Saturday, with a seven-day average of 47 deaths a day. The number of Omicron strain cases in India rose to 12 on Sunday, after seven new cases of the mutated Covid variant were recorded in the state of Maharashtra and one more case in New Delhi. But scientists expect India’s potential Omicron wave to be less severe than that from Delta – which saw a devastating wave in March and April – after a wall of immunity was built as 70% of the population are believed to have been infected with previous variants. About 50% of India’s adult population are fully vaccinated, the federal health ministry said.