Hello it’s Samantha Lock here taking over from my colleague Jedidajah Otte. As I’m coming to you from Sydney, here are some Covid stats from Australia. The state of Victoria recorded 1,290 new Covid cases and two deaths, while NSW recorded 536 new Covid-19 cases and no deaths over the past 24 hours. After two years of border closures, the WA premier, Mark McGowan, is today due to announce when the state’s borders will reopen to domestic and international travellers, after reaching the 80% vaccination milestone at the weekend. And “tens of thousands” of people are expected to cross into Queensland after its borders reopen at 1am on Monday. It will be the first time in 229 days people will not need to quarantine on arrival, provided they are fully vaccinated. A person in New South Wales has been admitted to hospital infected with the Omicron variant of Covid-19, the first Omicron patient to be hospitalised since it arrived in Australia last month. The NHS is facing a “huge” challenge in its fight against Omicron, NHS Providers said. The organisation for the NHS hospital, mental health, community and ambulance services said the announcement on Sunday that the target to get every UK adult vaccinated has been brought forward by a month is a “critical moment”. It added that the NHS needs public support “now as much as ever” as the health service is “already under enormous pressure”. An NHS Providers spokesperson said: It is important that the prime minister recognises that this is an emergency. The threat from Omicron is becoming clearer, but there is an opportunity - through an accelerated booster campaign - to contain its impact. The NHS is already under enormous pressure, and scaling up in this way will be a huge challenge. But we have seen over the last 18 months, when it’s been tested as never before, how resilient and resourceful the health service and its staff can be. They added that “we will need to reprioritise” as the NHS is “already beyond full stretch”. The spokesperson said: As more hospital staff become involved in the vaccination campaign this is likely to impact on planned care, causing some additional delays. Patients will be prioritised according to clinical need, but trust leaders are only too aware of the impact of these difficult decisions. Macmillan Cancer Support reacted to the news that other NHS services may be delayed and said “the government also must not fail to ensure NHS cancer services are prioritised and protected this winter to ensure that nobody faces long waits and disruption in vital cancer care”. Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said the NHS will do “everything it can to get even more vaccines into people’s arms so that the public has the maximum possible level of protection” but “while the NHS will remain open for business, this enhanced focus on vaccinations could lead to disruption elsewhere in the service”. Taylor added: There are significant vacancies across the NHS, frontline staff are exhausted, and they are working in a very pressured environment. They expect continued honesty and ongoing support from the government, as well as for all parliamentarians to make sure the new interventions pass next week given how tough winter is expecting to be and the devastating impact coronavirus can have on people’s lives. The public also has a vital role to play in how they go about their daily lives and use local health services. Here some more detail from AFP on the news that South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday: Ramaphosa, who is fully vaccinated, began feeling unwell after leaving a state memorial service for former deputy president F W de Klerk in Cape Town earlier in the day but was in good spirits and being monitored by doctors, [the presidency] said. [...] On a recent visit to four West African states, the president and the entire South African delegation were tested for Covid-19 in all countries, the statement said. The president and the delegation returned to South Africa from the Republic of Senegal on Wednesday, 8 December 2021, after obtaining negative test results. The president also tested negative on his return to Johannesburg on 8 December. The statement quoted Ramaphosa as saying that his own infection served as a warning to all citizens of the importance of getting vaccinated and remaining vigilant against exposure. “Vaccination remains the best protection against severe illness and hospitalisation,” the statement said. “People who have had contact with the president today are advised to watch for symptoms or to have themselves tested,” it added. Cases of coronavirus in Africa nearly doubled over a week as Omicron spread, but hospitalisations in South Africa remain low, the UN added on Thursday. In a weekly online press briefing, the World Health Organization’s Africa branch said the continent had recorded 107,000 extra cases in the week to last Sunday, compared with 55,000 in the previous week. Omicron “is reaching more countries in Africa”, it said, adding that research was being stepped up to see whether the new variant was specifically behind the sharp rise. The biggest surge in numbers - 140 percent on average - was in the south of the continent. On Sunday, South Africa logged 37,875 daily new infections, data from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases showed - the highest daily tally yet, exceeding the previous record of 26,485 set during the peak of the third wave in July, Bloomberg reports. This from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Boris Johnson’s announcements tonight: The public should put aside their “justifiable anger” about recent rule-breaking allegations surrounding Downing Street and Boris Johnson and get their booster vaccination, the Labour MP Wes Streeting has urged. The shadow health secretary told broadcasters: We know that the vaccine and the booster in particular is the most powerful tool we have in our fight against Covid-19, and against this variant in particular. We’ve warned the government they hadn’t been doing enough to get the booster rollout under way. And so tonight’s announcement is one that we can very much get behind. This has got to be a big national effort. All of us have got a part to play and it’s crucial that, despite people’s justifiable anger and frustration with the Prime Minister, we put that to one side in the effort to get the vaccine booster rolled out and to make it a success. Streeting, who had previously called for all adults to be allowed to book their jabs before Johnson’s announced acceleration, said he is booked in to get his top-up jab on Thursday. He stressed that the NHS would need to be achieving one million boosters a day in order to achieve the new year target. Professor Christina Pagel, of University College London, welcomed prime minister Boris Johnson’s announcement of an “emergency booster national mission”, but voiced doubts about whether this would prevent further restrictions before Christmas. “Boosting all adults by the end of the month is really important. We do know that two doses is just not enough,” she said. However, she said that some current policies appeared contradictory, including allowing vaccinated people to take lateral flow tests instead of isolating after contact with a Covid case. She said: Don’t go to work but go to parties. Get a booster, but it’s fine not to isolate if you’re vaccinated. It’s not consistent. This idea that kids can go to school if someone in their house has Covid is just stupid. We should be saying no parties, no gatherings bigger than ten people, say. We need to think about moving back down the roadmap and restricting contact. I expect whatever they announce today they’ll announce more in a few days. I don’t necessarily have a problem with that. I just don’t think they can say ‘this is it’ until Christmas when things are so uncertain. Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said that delivering boosters to all adults in the UK would be a huge challenge, but if achieved it would be the most effective means to reduce severe disease and pressure on the NHS. Hunter said: We now know that two doses are not that effective or not at all effective at preventing infection from omicron, but we still don’t know how effective the two dose vaccine will be at preventing severe disease from omicron. It is not a forlorn hope that two doses will fare better against severe disease from omicron than they do against infection. But it is a pretty safe conclusion that the booster will be even more effective against severe disease than against infection. If we achieve this target then this will go a huge way towards helping the UK and the NHS get through the expected wave of Omicron in January intact. Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol and a member of JCVI, said that the ambition to offer boosters to all adults “makes sense if it’s achievable”. He said: It’s not really my place to pronounce on what regulations should be put in place, that’s really for the politicians. But I’d strongly encourage people to do everything they can to minimise transmission while we get the booster programme done. The leader of the British Labour party, Sir Keir Starmer, said the government had Labour’s support to accelerate the booster programme, as he urged the public to “protect our families, friends and the NHS” by getting a top-up jab amid fears over the Omicron variant. Starmer said: The arrival of the worrying new variant is a reminder that the pandemic is not over. And vaccines are the best weapon in our fight. The vaccine is safe and effective. It protects us and those around us. We will always support the NHS and act in the public interest. Therefore the government has our support in the effort to accelerate the booster programme. It’s also vital that we use the Christmas holidays to get the vaccine out to eligible children. I urge everyone to get boosted as soon as you can - and if you haven’t had your first or second jab yet, now is the time to come forward. We have come so far since those darkest of days at the start of the pandemic. So much has been asked of the British people, and time and again you have risen to the challenge. So let’s keep our foot on the pedal and get Britain boosted to protect our families, friends and NHS. Scotland aims to offer booster jabs to all eligible adults by the end of the year, but more Covid-19 restrictions may still be needed to combat Omicron, Nicola Sturgeon has said. In a statement following prime minister Boris Johnson’s address to the nation, Scotland’s first minister said urgent work is under way to “further accelerate rollout of the booster vaccination programme in Scotland”, PA reports. She said her government’s aim is to offer a “booster jag appointment to all eligible adults by the end of this year if possible”, with 30-39 year olds able to book from 10am on Monday and 18-29 year olds from later in the week. Sturgeon added: Given the expected volume of cases in the weeks ahead, however, it is also possible that further, proportionate protective measures or advice will be necessary. This is true even if Omicron proves to be slightly less severe than Delta. The number of cases will still put significant pressure on the NHS and the economy. The government will therefore consider the latest data tomorrow ahead of a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday and I will set out any decisions to parliament later that day. The NHS website to book booster jabs has been experiencing technical difficulties, shortly after British prime minister Boris Johnson’s televised address, in which he urged eligible people to “get boosted now”. A statement on the website said: “The NHS website is currently experiencing technical difficulties. We are working to resolve these issues. Thank you for your patience.”