A doctor specialising in acute medicine in the north of England explains how Omicron is straining his hospital’s capacity. “The numbers of patients we are treating now – both Covid and non-Covid – is quite incredible,” writes Nick Scriven: Good morning, this is Helen Livingstone bringing you the day’s pandemic news from Sydney. To start with, this year’s Grammy awards has been postponed as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. A statement confirms that the ceremony has been postponed indefinitely with no new date yet announced. The awards were set to take place on 31 January at the Crypto.com center in Los Angeles and while sporting events have still been taking place there, sources claim that artists and executives have expressed concern over attending this year’s Grammys ceremony. “The health and safety of those in our music community, the live audience and the hundreds of people who work tirelessly to produce our show remains our top priority,” the statement read. “Given the uncertainty surrounding the Omicron variant, holding the show on January 31st simply contains too many risks. We look forward to celebrating music’s biggest night on a future date, which will be announced soon.” Summary Here’s a roundup of the key developments from the day: Novak Djokovic’s attempts to compete at the Australian Open this month are over after the No 1-ranked male tennis player was told his visa has been rejected. He is due to be flown out of Melbourne on Thursday amid a spiralling outcry over his controversial “medical exemption” agreed by the tournament’s organisers. Record rises in daily Covid cases were reported in at least seven countries on Wednesday as the Omicron variant continues to spread. They were: France - 332,252; Portugal - 39,570; Turkey - 66,467; Italy - 189,109; Sweden - 17,320; the Netherlands - 24,000 and Israel - 11,978. The government in Italy is set to make Covid vaccination mandatory for the over 50s, according to a draft decree. The obligation will be effective until 15 June 15. The French parliament suspended debate on a new Covid law as opposition lawmakers demanded explanations from President Emmanuel Macron about comments in which he said he wanted to “piss off” unvaccinated people. Germany is considering shortening self-isolation periods over fears that critical services could grind to a halt, according to health ministry plan. Workers in critical sectors, such as hospitals or electricity suppliers, would be able to end their isolation after five days, provided they get a negative PCR test, under the draft proposals. The Czech government has shortened the quarantine period for Covid positive people from seven days to five. The government also approved blanket testing in companies, effective from 17 January. The president of Poland has tested positive for coronavirus for a second time, after several people around him were infected. Andrzej Duda previously caught Covid in October 2020. Mozambique president Filipe Nyusi’s PCR results came back negative for Covid-19 after Nyusi and his wife Isaura tested positive via rapid tests days earlier, the president’s office said on Wednesday. Pre-departure tests for people travelling to England are to be been scrapped. Boris Johnson announced that the requirement would be lifted from 4am on Friday, along with the need for travellers to self-isolate on arrival until they receive a negative PCR test result. The president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, has become the first world leader to get a fourth Covid jab. On Monday Israel became the first country in the world to embark on a fourth Covid-19 vaccination campaign starting with those over 60. I’m handing this blog over to my colleague Helen Livingstone in Australia now. Thanks so much for joining me over the last few hours. Millions of patients in England will suffer worsening quality of care unless ministers take immediate action to alleviate the staffing crisis engulfing the NHS, health chiefs have warned. The NHS Confederation, which represents the whole healthcare system, is tonight calling for a range of new measures to be implemented in the NHS in England to help overstretched hospitals and struggling ambulance, mental health, community, GP and social care services cope with “widespread” shortages of medics and health workers. Tens of thousands of medical students should be deployed on to wards and other healthcare settings, NHS and social care staff must be granted priority access to lateral flow and PCR tests, and the self-isolation period should be reviewed to see if it can be slashed from 10 days to five, as has happened in the US and France, it said. The call came as growing numbers of operations are being cancelled, with more than 20 NHS trusts declaring an “internal critical incident” in recent days as they struggle to cope with the intense Covid pressure. It emerged on Wednesday that at least four more NHS trusts have taken that step, the highest form of alert any hospital can issue, as had the entire NHS in Norfolk. NHS staff absences have now spiralled to double what they normally would be at this time of year, and 17,276 people are in hospital in the UK with Covid – up 58% in a week – as Omicron continues to put “enormous strain” on every part of the health service, the NHS Confederation added. The absence of tens of thousands of staff is already having a “detrimental” impact on the ability of the NHS to provide healthcare, it warned, and said that, without further measures, the staffing crisis “threatens the quality of patient care”. Given the worsening situation, there should also be “explicit acknowledgment” from the national regulators that clinical tasks “might need to be allocated in ways which would not normally be recognised as best practice”, the NHS Confederation said. Novak Djokovic’s attempts to compete at the Australian Open this month are over after the No 1-ranked male tennis player was told his visa has been rejected. He is due to be flown out of Melbourne on Thursday amid a spiralling outcry over his controversial “medical exemption” agreed by the tournament’s organisers. The reigning Australian Open champion was held up at passport control on Wednesday night at Tullamarine airport in Melbourne, the host city of the tournament, for several hours late at night as he was questioned. The Australian Border Force confirmed on Thursday morning he would not be allowed to remain in the country. A statement read: The ABF will continue to ensure that those who arrive at our border comply with our laws and entry requirements. The ABF can confirm that Mr Djokovic failed to provide appropriate evidence to meet the entry requirements to Australia, and his visa has been subsequently cancelled. Non-citizens who do not hold a valid visa on entry or who have had their visa cancelled will be detained and removed from Australia. The ABF can confirm Mr Djokovic had access to his phone. There are reports Djokovic’s lawyers will challenge the decision. Djokovic’s father Srdjan said the player was moved to a room alone, separated from his team, and without a mobile phone. More than five hours after they arrived in Melbourne, Goran Ivanisevic, Djokovic’s coach, posted a selfie on Instagram from the airport at 5am captioned “not the most usual trip Down Under”. Two major cruise lines have cancelled sailings amid rising fears of Omicron-related coronavirus infections that have dampened the nascent recovery of the pandemic-ravaged cruise industry. Both Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd and Norwegian Cruise Line both made the decision as the Omicron variant continues to rise across the globe. Royal Caribbean called off its Spectrum of the Seas cruise for 6 January after nine guests on its 2 January trip were identified as close contacts to a local Hong Kong Covid-19 case. The contacts have tested negative but the cruise ship will return to Kai Tak Cruise Terminal in Hong Kong on 5 January to test all guests and crew who must take a second test on 8 January, the company said. A similar decision to cancel trips by Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd was made against the backdrop of the US reporting the highest daily tally of any country for new coronavirus infections on Monday. The 17-ship strong cruise operator said: Due to ongoing travel restrictions, we’ve had to modify a few sailings and unfortunately have had to cancel. The cruise line, which requires everyone on board to be vaccinated, has also had to cut short a 12-day round trip from Miami on its Norwegian Pearl ship, citing “Covid related circumstances.” The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had last week advised people to avoid cruise travel after launching investigations into onboard cases on more than 90 ships. The health agency starts a scrutiny if at least 0.1% of the guests test positive. Norwegian Cruise said guests, who were supposed to embark on the canceled sailings on the eight ships, will receive full refunds and bonus credits for future bookings. The Omicron-led travel uncertainty is also causing guests on other sailings to cancel their bookings as a few ships have also had to skip ports due to onboard infections. Holly Bromley, a consulting arborist, who canceled her booking on Norwegian Epic said: We booked the cruise last March and assumed that things would be getting back to normal... by mid-December, I was mentally prepared for a change of plans. Meanwhile, bigger rival Carnival Corp said it has not cancelled any upcoming voyages, but its shares fell on Wednesday to close down 2.6%. Royal Caribbean lost 2.1% and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings 3.6%. Mozambique president Filipe Nyusi’s PCR results came back negative for Covid-19 after Nyusi and his wife Isaura tested positive via rapid tests days earlier, the president’s office said on Wednesday. Nyusi wrote in a post on his official Facebook page that he would continue to isolate in line with national health protocols “until my wife’s health situation stabilises,” but neither the post nor a statement from Nyusi’s office said what Isaura Nyusi’s PCR test results showed. A spokesman for Nyusi was not immediately available to elaborate. Mozambique’s coronavirus infections are close to their peak, according to a Reuters tally. The southern African country has recorded over 2,000 coronavirus-related deaths and 196,000 infections during the pandemic. Two entrepreneurs with no apparent background in healthcare have made £20m – and could make tens of millions more – after landing roles as middlemen between the UK government and a US firm that won £3.7bn of contracts to supply lateral flow tests. Charles Palmer, whose background is in property, and Kim Thonger, a former shoe retailer, are the co-owners of Disruptive Nanotechnology, a business that had just £85 in the bank and debts of £3,592 at the end of 2019. Accounts filed at Companies House last month show that the firm’s net assets soared to £20.5m during the year to 31 December 2020, including the first nine months of the coronavirus pandemic. Disruptive Nanotechnology, trading as Tried&Tested, describes itself as the exclusive UK and EU distributor for rapid antigen and antibody tests made by California-based Innova Medical Group. Palmer’s wife, Dr Rachel Limbrey, is the chief medical adviser at Tried&Tested, as well as working as a respiratory consultant at University Hospital Southampton. Innova has won nine contracts worth a combined £3.7bn to provide tests, thanks in part to Operation Moonshot, the plan by Boris Johnson’s former adviser Dominic Cummings to roll out mass daily testing to reduce the need for strict Covid restrictions. France reports record 332,252 new cases France has more details on its record number of new daily cases. The final number of new cases stood at 332,252 - slightly below an earlier indication given to the French parliament from Health Minister Olivier Veran. The number of COVID-19 deaths in hospitals rose by 246 in the last 24 hours, taking the total since the pandemic began to 97,670. The number of Covid patients in hospital intensive care units (ICUs) stood at 3,695 and there were over 20,000 Covid patients in hospital in total, the highest number since late May. France is backing on ramping up its Covid-19 vaccination programme to avoid having to take any drastic new restrictions to curb the spread of the virus. French President Emmanuel Macron had said earlier that he wanted to “piss off” unvaccinated people by making their lives so complicated they would end up getting jabbed. He was speaking in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper in which he also called unvaccinated people irresponsible and unworthy of being considered citizens. Summary Record rises in daily Covid cases were reported in at least seven countries on Wednesday as the Omicron variant continues to spread. They were: France - 332,252; Portugal - 39,570; Turkey - 66,467; Italy - 189,109; Sweden - 17,320; the Netherlands - 24,000 and Israel - 11,978. The government in Italy is set to make Covid vaccination mandatory for the over 50s, according to a draft decree. The obligation will be effective until 15 June 15. Novak Djokovic’s attempts to compete at the Australian Open have been thrown into fresh doubt amid a spiralling outcry over his controversial “medical exemption” agreed by the tournament’s organisers. It was reported that the visa with which he attempted to enter Australia does not allow for exemptions for unvaccinated applicants. The French parliament suspended debate on a new Covid law as opposition lawmakers demanded explanations from President Emmanuel Macron about comments in which he said he wanted to “piss off” unvaccinated people. Germany is considering shortening self-isolation periods over fears that critical services could grind to a halt, according to health ministry plan. Workers in critical sectors, such as hospitals or electricity suppliers, would be able to end their isolation after five days, provided they get a negative PCR test, under the draft proposals. The Czech government has shortened the quarantine period for Covid positive people from seven days to five. The government also approved blanket testing in companies, effective from 17 January. The president of Poland has tested positive for coronavirus for a second time, after several people around him were infected. Andrzej Duda previously caught Covid in October 2020. Pre-departure tests for people travelling to England are to be been scrapped. Boris Johnson announced that the requirement would be lifted from 4am on Friday, along with the need for travellers to self-isolate on arrival until they receive a negative PCR test result. The president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, has become the first world leader to get a fourth Covid jab. On Monday Israel became the first country in the world to embark on a fourth Covid-19 vaccination campaign starting with those over 60.