Summary Here’s a quick snapshot of how Covid is unfolding across the world: Europe: Omicron “appears to be less severe and many people spend a relatively short time in hospital,” Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University and leading immunologist has said. UK prime minister Boris Johnson said he will not introduce further Covid restrictions in England before 2022 giving mass events the go-ahead and leaving nightclubs open for New Year’s Eve. Scientists say it is “the greatest divergence between scientific advice and legislation” seen since the start of the pandemic. The UK recorded 129,471 new Covid cases on Tuesday, the highest recorded total ever, and up from 98,515 reported yesterday. More than 500 children admitted to hospital with Covid in England in week up to Boxing Day. France has reduced the waiting time for a third booster shot to three months from four. From Monday, all indoor gatherings will be limited to 2,000 people, and to 5,000 people for outdoor events. Consumption of drinks and food will be banned in long-distance transport and home working will become mandatory for at least three days per week where possible. France reported 179,807 new confirmed cases on Tuesday, by far the highest number since the start of the pandemic. Denmark and Iceland reported record daily Covid cases on Monday. Denmark now has the world’s highest infection rate, with 1,612 cases per 100,000 people. Denmark has the world’s highest Covid infection rate, with 1,612 cases per 100,000 people. Greece will impose further restrictions from January 3 including the closure of bars and restaurants at midnight, no standing customers at entertainment venues and a maximum limit of six people per table. Greece reported a new daily record of 21,657 Covid cases on Tuesday, more than double the number the day before. Germany toughens Covid restrictions with indoor and outdoor gatherings restricted in size and leisure facilities closing in several states. Asia: Daily cases in Australia exceeded 10,000 for the second consecutive day, with a total of 11,264 new Covid cases across the country – the highest figure since the beginning of the pandemic. In Yan’an, China, hundreds of thousands more people were ordered to stay at home, joining millions under strict lockdown in Xi’an. China’s coronavirus cases rose for a fourth consecutive day on Monday. Delhi, India, announces new Covid restrictions. Schools, colleges and educational institutions will close as well as sports complexes, cinemas, conference halls, stadiums and swimming pools. Offices will operate at 50% capacity, as will restaurants with a 10pm curfew. Japanese officials have detected a five-person cluster of Omicron cases in the city of Osaka. Hong Kong will tighten quarantine rules for air cargo crew. Malaysia will cut the booster vaccine waiting time to three months and has banned mass celebrations for New Year’s Eve with negative Covid tests required for private gatherings. India has approved Merck’s Covid-19 pill and two more vaccines for emergency use. United States: Omicron accounts for 58.6% of all Covid cases in the US, new CDC data shows. Delta accounts for 41.1% of Covid cases for the week ending 25 December. The US recorded 512,553 daily new cases on Tuesday – by far the single highest number of cases recorded since the beginning of the pandemic. Dr Anthony Fauci said a vaccine mandate should be considered for all passengers in the US. The US Centre for Disease Control has reduced the recommended isolation time for people recording a positive test from 10 days to five. Joe Biden said the dramatic surge in US Covid cases caused by the Omicron variant “should be a source of concern but it should not be a source of panic”. Africa: South Africa has recalled rules that no longer required people without symptoms of Covid-19 to isolate or test if they have been in contact with a positive case. Last week the health ministry said that asymptomatic individuals who had been in contact with a case of Covid-19 no longer had to isolate but should monitor for symptoms for 5-7 days and avoid attending large gatherings. Hello. It’s Samantha Lock back with you on the blog and I hope everyone is well. As I will be reporting from Sydney here is quick snapshot of how Covid is unfolding across Australia. The nation’s most populous state of New South Wales recorded 11,201 cases and reports suggest that the state government will seek to wind back isolation times for Covid positive patients. Victoria recorded 3,767. Some states are considering shorter isolation and Queensland border test requirements are changing. Waiting times at testing sites in NSW and Victoria have been overwhelmed, with reports the system is being strained. Some have reported queuing for hours and being turned away, and many have reported waiting up to six days for results. South Australia saw a huge surge in cases, recording 995 yesterday, with concerns numbers could continue to rise. Premier Steven Marshall told reporters the numbers were “doubling every three to four days”. The ACT also recorded its highest daily case numbers yesterday, reporting 252 new cases. More than 500 children admitted to hospital with Covid in England in week up to Boxing Day A total of 512 children were admitted to hospitals in England with Covid-19 in the week leading up to Boxing Day, new figures show. The numbers, released on the government’s coronavirus dashboard, showed 59 children aged under 5 were admitted to hospital between Christmas Day and Boxing Day alone. A further 50 children in this same age group were admitted to hospital in the 24 hours prior. From 19 to 26 December, a total of 226 children aged 6 to 17 were admitted to hospital with Covid. Over that same duration, 286 children under the age of 5 were admitted to hospital. In comparison, 256 children aged 17 and under were admitted into hospital in the last week of November. Of those, 100 were aged under five and 156 aged between six and 17. The mass fatalities and packed intensive care units that marked the pandemic’s first year will likely not be repeated in the UK, a scientist advising the government has said. Professor Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University, told The Independent that vaccines based on early iterations of the virus appear to have remained highly effective at protecting against severe disease and deaths from subsequent waves driven by new variants. “The horrific scenes that we saw a year ago – intensive care units being full, lots of people dying prematurely – that is now history in my view and I think we should reassured that that’s likely to continue,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning. South Africa has scrapped rules that no longer required people without Covid-19 symptoms to isolate or test if they have been in contact with a positive case, the government has announced. The decision comes after health authorities said on Thursday they would stop contact tracing everywhere except places like prisons and schools, as they believed most of the population had already been exposed to the virus through vaccination or infection. Under last week’s rules, contact cases would only have to do a test if they started developing symptoms. If they tested positive, they were to isolate for 10 days then resume their activities as normal after recovery without another test. “The department of health has been inundated with media, stakeholders and public enquiries and comments since the release of the revised protocols,” it said today. “The department has decided to put the implementation of the revised policy changes on hold, while taking all... comments and inputs received into consideration.” Officials said a new “amended circular” would be re-issued once all comments had been assessed. Quebec’s health minister Christian Dubé has announced some health care workers who have tested positive for Covid-19 will continue working. The second most populous Canadian province has “no choice” but to allow some Covid infected essential workers to continue working to prevent staff shortages from impeding its healthcare services, Dubé told reporters at a briefing today. “Omicron’s contagion is so exponential, that a huge number of personnel have to be withdrawn – and that poses a risk to the network capacity to treat Quebecers,” he said. “We made the decision that under a certain condition positive staff will be able to continue working according to a list of priority and risk management,” he said, adding that more information would be provided in the coming days. Quebec, which has been setting daily records since the Omicron variant started a new wave of rapidly rising infections, recorded 12,833 new cases on Monday – the highest one-day count of any region in Canada during the pandemic. Last week, Quebec ordered bars, gyms and casinos to shut and directed people to work only from home. It also limited the size of gatherings at private homes and restaurants to six people. Thousands of New Year’s Eve revellers are expected to escape strict Covid-19 restrictions in Wales by hopping across the border to visit nightspots in English towns and cities. Leaders of the nightlife industry in Wales are angry that they will lose trade to their counterparts in England because Welsh nightclubs have been ordered to shut and pubs told to put in social distancing measures. But the Welsh government said on Tuesday that its restrictions were proportionate, with the latest seven-day coronavirus rate per 100,000 people rising to 1,004 – the highest since the pandemic began. About 6,000 new infections are being confirmed daily, the majority caused by the Omicron variant. Nick Newman, the chair of the Cardiff Licensees Forum, said he expected many people to leave Wales for England. “It’s 40 minutes from Newport to Bristol and it’s easy to get from north Wales into Manchester or Liverpool. English businesses are going to benefit. “We’re hugely disappointed with the stance the Welsh government is taking, especially not presenting the evidence that links the virus to the hospitality industry.” Mark Finlay, the operations manager for a number of pubs and bars in Wrexham, which is close to the border, said people were bound to pop over to places like Chester for a night out with few restrictions. “It’s frustrating that a few minutes down the road you can celebrate a normal New Year’s Eve but we’re not allowed that opportunity here. For us it will be an average night serving people at tables. There won’t be the normal party atmosphere. I’m fully expecting everyone to go to Chester.” US reports single highest number of daily cases According to data by Johns Hopkins University, the US recorded 512,553 daily new cases today – by far the single highest number of cases recorded since the beginning of the pandemic. The previous record was 294,015 set on 8 January 2021. One mitigating factor is the delay in reporting over the Christmas weekend. Many testing centres were likely closed over the holiday, meaning some test results would have been likely rolled over to Monday and today. Germany’s highest court has ruled that disabled people must be protected by legally binding guidelines in case hospitals are forced to introduce a triage system as the country braces itself for a new, more infectious wave of coronavirus. The constitutional court announced its decision on Tuesday, ordering legislators to create a legal framework that would prevent disabled people from being unfairly treated. It urged the state to establish a criteria to which doctors would have to refer before deciding which patients received lifesaving treatment if intensive care units were overwhelmed and resources were exhausted. The case was brought by a group of nine people with disabilities and pre-existing medical conditions who feared that current medical guidelines would not protect them from being overlooked or disregarded if they became seriously ill with Covid-19. Cyprus reports record daily high of 2,241 new cases Cyprus has recorded its highest single-day number of cases with 2,241 infections, up from 1,925 the day before. To date, Cyprus has reported 154,926 cases and 630 deaths, Reuters reports. “I think this is due to the Omicron variant, which may have arrived earlier than we thought,” said Petros Karayiannis, professor of microbiology and molecular virology at the University of Nicosia and a member of the government’s scientific advisory committee. The first confirmed case of the Omicron variant was recorded in Cyprus on 10 December. More than 80% of residents have received two doses of a Covid vaccine. In Turkey, figures by the health ministry show daily cases have exceeded 30,000 for the first time since 19 October. Turkish authorities reported 32,176 cases and 184 deaths today. The country’s daily caseload has risen in recent days due to the Omicron variant, with daily cases surging by 30% on Monday. “Bringing case numbers to the 20,000 level was a serious achievement,” Turkey’s health minister, Fahrettin Koca, said. “Due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, it can be seen we are now entering a rising trend.”