Sunday Omicron Summary
Here’s a recap of Sunday’s Omicron developments as the new strain continues to panic world leaders.
- Authorities in the Netherlands detected at least 13 cases of the Omicron variant from recent flights into Amsterdam from South Africa.
- Botswana, which borders South Africa, said it has recorded a total 19 Omicron cases.
- The UK said it has detected three total Omicron infections in Nottingham, Essex and the London borough of Westminster, with targeted PCR testing being stepped up.
- The World Health Organisation urged countries not to impose blanket travel restrictions on southern African countires, amid fears of the economic toll and that the science behind the decisions is not yet certain without further studies.
- South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphos said the new variant is a “wake-up call” for global vaccine inequality and criticised travel bans for their economic fallout.
- European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen warned of global “race against time” against Omicron, urging people to practice social distancing and get vaccinated so scientists have time to understand the new variant’s transmissibility and severity.
- The health ministers of the G7 will hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the Omicron variant.
- The 194 member states of the World Health Organization agreed to launch pandemic treaty negotiations as the world prepares to learn the lessons of Covid for the next pandemic.
- The US chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci warned of a potential “fifth wave” of Covid in America, as the US vaccination rate slows, cases rise and the Omicron variant looms on the horizon.
- The UK reported 37,681 new Covid cases and 51 deaths, with the government vaccine watchdog suggesting the vaccine booster drive could be accelerated as soon as Monday to suppress cases.
- Secondary school pupils and teachers in England will wear once again face coverings in communal areas.
- Israel suspended all flights into the country on Sunday at 10pm GMT after detecting its first Omicron infection on Friday, just four weeks after it fully opened its skies to vaccinated travellers.
- Morocco said it will stop all incoming flights for two weeks starting Monday to prevent spread of the new strain.
That’s all from me, Jem Bartholomew, here in London as Helen Livingstone in Australia takes over the blog.
Updated
Interesting comment piece here from Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, on the three pieces of data needed to reveal Omicron’s danger to the UK.
- Infectiousness – can it overtake the Delta variant to gain a foothold as the dominant strain?
- Disease severity – what’s the impact on hospitalisations and deaths, what does this mean for hospital capacity and therefore lockdowns?
- Vaccine disruption – are existing vaccines less effective against this strain, and do they need to be tweaked? (BioNTech said it could change its Covid vaccine in 100 days if needed.)
So what does this mean for each of us? Right now, we need to continue to do all the things we should already be doing to get through the harsh winter months: getting vaccinated, and boosted, to protect ourselves; using the free home-testing kits to ensure we’re not infecting others, whether in friends’ homes or in pubs and restaurants; wearing masks in crowded places such as public transport and shops; and being attentive to how many close contacts we have.
Botswana records 19 total Omicron cases
Botswana has detected a total 19 cases of the new Covid variant, Omicron, the health minister said on Sunday.
“As of today we have recorded a total of 19 cases of the variant,” health minister Edwin Dikoloti said.
Botswana shares a 1,223-mile border with South Africa, where Omicron was first sequenced.
Botswana said on Friday the first cases of Omicron came from four foreign nationals who arrived on 7 November on a diplomatic mission.
“We are concerned that there seem to have been attempts to stigmatise the country where it was detected,” Dikoloti added, criticising derogatory reports of a so-called “Botswana variant”.
Updated
Canada reports two Omicron cases
Canada has confirmed two cases of the Omicron variant in federal capital Ottawa, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports.
Both cases were recent arrivals from Nigeria and are Canada’s first from the new variant.
Canada banned travellers who had visited southern Africa countries in the past two weeks in a ban which came into effect on Friday.
“Today, the province of Ontario has confirmed two cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in Ottawa, both of which were reported in individuals with recent travel from Nigeria. Ottawa Public Health is conducting case and contact management and the patients are in isolation,” the Ontario government said.
The health minister, Christine Elliott, and chief medical officer, Kieran Moore, said in a statement: “The best defence against the Omicron variant is stopping it at our border. In addition to the measures recently announced, we continue to urge the federal government to take the necessary steps to mandate point-of-arrival testing for all travellers irrespective of where they’re coming from to further protect against the spread of this new variant.”
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Morocco will suspend all incoming flights for two weeks over the new Omicron variant starting Monday, state media reported.
Israel shut its borders to all travellers on Sunday at 10pm GMT, in moves which are more severe but less discriminatory than other flight bans imposed by other countries.
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The European Central Bank president, Christine Lagarde, said the euro zone is better equipped to face the economic impact of a new wave of Covid infections or the Omicron variant.
“There is an obvious concern about the economic recovery [of the euro zone] in 2022, but I believe we have learnt a lot. We now know our enemy and what measures to take. We are all better equipped to respond to a risk of a fifth wave or the Omicron variant”, Lagarde told Italian broadcaster RAI on Sunday.
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Member states of the World Health Organization agreed to launch pandemic treaty negotiations on Sunday, as the world prepares to learn the lessons of Covid for the next pandemic.
From Monday to Wednesday the World Health Assembly – WHO’s decision-making body of 194 member states – meets in Geneva, Switzerland.
The negotiations will discuss how to establish an intergovernmental body to boost international co-operation in preparing, preventing and responding to the next pandemic. The goal is to reduce the devastating economic consequences and catastrophic loss of life witnessed during the Covid pandemic.
A stumbling block to agreement had been the US’s refusal of language that would have been any such treaty legally binding, but the US has partly relented for now, helping produce an agreement.
“WHO member states today informally agreed to start negotiations on a pandemic treaty. Now the resolution needs to be formally adopted tomorrow by world leaders,” said the European Union’s diplomatic mission in Geneva.
It added: “The events of the last weeks demonstrate more than ever the need for global solidarity and leadership. We look forward to world leaders demonstrating their joint commitment tomorrow. The momentum is there – the planet must be better prepared.”
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South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said the new Omicron Covid strain is a “wake-up call” for global vaccine inequality.
Roughly 10% of people in Africa have been inoculated with at least one vaccine shot, the New York Times estimates, compared with 62% of people in Europe and 64% in North America.
Ramaphosa said he will not be imposing further restrictions at this time, saying this phase of the pandemic differs due to the availability of vaccines. Just under one-quarter of people in South Africa are double-vaccinated.
Ramaphosa opposes travel bans announced on southern African countries in recent days, amid fears of the economic toll. The World Health Organization echoed Ramaphosa’s concern on Sunday and called for borders to remain open, citing uncertainty over the transmissibility, severity and vaccine disruption from Omicron.
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The UK’s Covid booster vaccine rollout could be significantly expanded as early as Monday in efforts to prevent spread of the Omicron strain.
The government’s vaccines watchdog, which held an emergency meeting over the weekend, could advise the use of boosters for younger people, as well as a cut in the current six-month wait between second and booster doses, The Guardian understands.
The UK has administered 46.3 million second vaccine doses, 69% of the total population, but only 17.6 million booster or third doses, 26.2% of the total population.
Secondary school pupils will also be told to wear masks in communal areas, and from Tuesday measures will come into effect mandating face coverings in shops and on public transport, as ministers step up suppression tactics.
My colleagues Peter Walker and Linda Geddes have the full story here.
Plans to identify positive Omicron infections have been activated in Northern Ireland, UK.
“Using passenger locator data, the Public Health Agency is identifying and contacting individuals who have recently arrived in Northern Ireland from red list countries,” Stormont health minister Robin Swann said on Sunday.
He added: “They and their household members will be asked to self-isolate and undertake PCR tests. If any positive cases are detected, the sample will then undergo whole genome sequencing to determine the variant type.”
No Omicron cases are confirmed in Northern Ireland but England has recorded three infections so far.
Swann urged the public to follow the steps to beat back infections, such as:
- Getting vaccinated, including booster jabs
- Wearing face coverings
- Ventilating rooms or meeting outdoors
- Working from home if possible
- Washing hands regularly.
Updated
Scientists are already scrambling to understand the new Omicron variant. They are assessing its transmissibility, whether its mutations spell greater disease severity and how it impacts existing vaccines.
The strain was identified as a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization on 26 November – due to mutations to the virus’s spike protein that appear to boost its transmissibility – which is a more serious designation than “variant of interest”.
Researchers at Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome, Italy, on Sunday released a three-dimensional image of the variant. The researchers said in a statement:
We can clearly see that the Omicron variant presents many more mutations than the Delta variant, concentrated above all in one area of the protein that interacts with human cells.
This does not automatically mean that these variations are more dangerous, just that the virus has further adapted to the human species by generating another variant.
Other studies will tell us if this adaptation is neutral, less dangerous or more dangerous.
The new Covid variant Omicron has many more mutations than the Delta variant, according to a first "image" of this new variant initially detected in South Africa, produced and published by the prestigious Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome https://t.co/qf3UA02zrC
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) November 28, 2021
Updated
Rwanda suspended direct flights to and from southern Africa on Sunday to prevent the new Omicron Covid strain’s spread, the prime minister’s office said.
It comes after the landlocked east African country reimposed a 24-hour quarantine on Friday, coming into effect Sunday, for all arriving travellers.
Prime minister Édouard Ngirente’s office also said it would now be compulsory to be fully vaccinated and tested at events such as conferences and concerts.
But the World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, urged countries on Sunday to avoid travel bans, as the transmissibility and severity of the new variant are still being investigated and such a policy “attacks global solidarity”. (See my earlier post for more details.)
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The Czech president Miloš Zeman carried out the prime minister’s inauguration ceremony from a glass perspex cubicle on Sunday, after becoming the latest in a long tally of world leaders to test positive for Covid.
Zeman sat in a wheelchair and wore a face covering while appointing Petr Fiala, of the centre-right Civic Democratic party, as prime minister at the Lány Chateau near Prague. He was accompanied by a medic in full protective gear.
Leaders such as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, former US president Donald Trump, Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, and UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, who became critically ill with the disease, have all tested positive for the virus.
Fiala ousted incumbent Andrej Babiš, whose offshore financial arrangements were spotlighted by The Guardian’s Pandora Papers investigation published last month.
The new Czech government’s agenda includes suppressing a new wave of Covid infections threatening to overwhelm hospitals, with Czech positive tests surging to 27,793 on Friday from 5,842 four weeks before on 29 October.
The Czech government declared a 30-day state of emergency on Friday, introducing new restrictions such as banning Christmas markets and imposing a 10pm curfew on restaraunts, bars and nightclubs.
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WHO's Africa director: Keep borders open amid Omicron
The head of the World Health Organization in Africa on Sunday urged countries to keep borders open, saying banning flights over the potentially more transmissable Omicron strain “attacks global solidarity.”
“With the Omicron variant now detected in several regions of the world, putting in place travel bans that target Africa attacks global solidarity,” said WHO regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moet, AFP reported.
The WHO said in a statement it stands with African nations and calls for borders to remain open, after a spate of travel bans were announced on Sunday.
“Travel restrictions may play a role in slightly reducing the spread of Covid-19 but place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods,” the UN agency’s statement said. “If restrictions are implemented, they should not be unnecessarily invasive or intrusive, and should be scientifically based.”
Moet’s comments come after Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, where Omicron was first sequencesd on 24 November, called on countries to “urgently” reverse “scientifically unjustified” flight bans.
“The only thing the prohibition on travel will do is to further damage the economies of the affected countries and undermine their ability to respond to, and recover from, the pandemic,” he added, urging South Africans to get vaccinated.
The WHO and other researchers are still assessing the virulence and severity of the strain and whether it could evade existing vaccines – with preliminary research showing more than 30 mutations to the virus spike protein.
.@WHO stands with #African nations & calls for borders to remain open.
— WHO African Region (@WHOAFRO) November 28, 2021
As countries impose flight bans on southern African nations due to concerns over the new #OmicronVariant, WHO urges countries to follow science & health regulations. #COVID19 https://t.co/avUuOJok2b
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G7 health ministers to hold urgent meeting on Monday over Omicron strain
G7 health ministers will hold an urgent meeting on Monday to discuss the Omicron variant.
The G7 is made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and US, and currently the UK holds presidency.
The meeting follows a flurry of positive Omicron test results in the UK, Germany and Italy, with the French health minister saying on Sunday that the strain is likely to also be circulating in France. “There is no identification yet, but it’s a matter of hours,” Olivier Veran said.
“Under the UK presidency an urgent meeting of G7 health ministers will also be convened on Monday 29 November to discuss the developments on Omicron,” the Department of Health and Social Care said on Sunday.
Updated
Here’s the latest UK Covid data visualised, showing new daily cases largely above 35,000 since October.
Health secretary Sajid Javid told Sky it “would be irresponsible to make guarantees” over potential holiday restrictions, but said: “I think people should continue with their plans as normal for Christmas, I think it’s going to be a great Christmas.”
Updated
Anthony Fauci warns of potential US "fifth wave" over climbing cases and slowing vaccination
Anthony Fauci, US President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said on Sunday the US could face a potential Covid “fifth wave” amid rising cases, stagnating vaccination rates and the “troubling” Omicron variant.
“Right now we have the window into the mutations that are in this new variant,” Fauci told NBC’s Meet the Press, “and they are troublesome in the fact that there are about 32 or more variants in that very important spike protein of the virus, which is the business end of the virus.
“In other words, the profile of the mutations strongly suggest that it’s going to have an advantage in transmissibility and that it might evade immune protection that you would get, for example, from the monoclonal antibody or from the convalescent serum after a person’s been infected and possibly even against some of the vaccine-induced antibodies.
“So it’s not necessarily that that’s going to happen, but it’s a strong indication that we really need to be prepared for that.”
The US has not yet recorded an Omicron variant infection, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Fauci urged the 62 million eligible Americans who are not yet vaccinated to get jabbed.
My colleague Victoria Bekiempis in New York has the full story here.
Updated
Stricter lockdown measures came into effect in the Netherlands on Sunday, as the country sees climbing Covid rates and at least 13 infections of the new Omicron variant.
The Netherlands recorded 22,031 new Covid infections on Saturday, up from 13,848 new cases two weeks beforehand.
At least 13 travellers flying into Amsterdam on Friday tested positive for the new Omicron strain, which the World Health Organization has labelled a “variant of concern” for its high transmissibility.
Public places such as restaraunts, bars, non-essential shops, theatres and cinemas must close between 5pm and 5am amid new curfew measures.
The Dutch government has said all non-urgent surgeries, such as hip replacements, will be postponted to free up intensive care beds, after Dutch hospitals warned ICU units could be overwhelmed by the end of the week.
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Students at schools and colleges in England will need to wear masks again, after the Department for Education told principals and headteachers that face coverings should now be worn in communal areas by staff, visitors and students in year 7 and above. Year 7 is for children aged 11 and is the first year of state secondary school in England.
Students and staff who are “suspected or confirmed close contacts of the Omicron variant” will be asked to self-isolate for 10 days regardless of vaccination status or age. Currently only confirmed cases need to isolate.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “It appears that the Omicron variant may result in more staff and pupil absence thereby worsening an already very grave situation.
“It is therefore imperative that the government provides workforce funding to schools and colleges to help with the cost of supply cover for absent staff.
“Schools and colleges are in a position of having to provide in-class teaching for some groups of students, and remote education for other groups of students, at the same time as experiencing Covid-related staff absence. They simply cannot sustain the ongoing costs of the supply cover that is required.
“The government must also promote a public campaign to encourage twice-weekly home Covid testing among eligible pupils in order to reduce the risk of transmission.
“We have made these calls on many occasions. It is clear that this crisis is not going away, and we once again call upon the government to give the sector the backing that it needs.”
Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary for England, said: “We are taking targeted and proportionate action as a precaution while we find out more information about the new variant.”
Zahawi added: “We are working with education and childcare settings to enhance safety measures where needed, including introducing isolation for 10 days for close contacts of suspected Omicron cases.”
Updated
The UK steps up targeted testing in Brentwood, Essex, one of three places alongside Nottingham and Westminster to record Omicron variant cases.
Targeted testing is now underway across Essex, with two locations stressed by authorities.
Essex County Council said churchgoers and staff who attended Trinity Church in Pilgrims Hatch on 21 November should take a PCR test, PA reports.
The council also said customers, staff and delivery couriers who visited KFC on Brentwood High Street on 19 November between 1pm and 5pm whould take a PCR test.
People who tested positive, plus all members of their households, are being re-tested and told to isolate, said the Department of Health & Social Care. Targeted testing is now underway across Essex.
Prime minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday that anyone coming into contact with an Omicron-positive person must self-isolate at home for 10 days – whether they are vaccinated or not.
Updated
Voters in Switzerland firmly backed Covid passes on Sunday.
A referendum resulted in 62% approval for the Covid certificate, which requires people to have had a vaccination or antibodies to enter restaurants and other indoor spaces, based on a high 65% turnout.
The restrictions have been in place since September. The highest referendum support came from Basel City and Zurich.
The result comes after a divisive campaign and rising Covid cases. Switzerland reported 8,033 new Covid cases on Friday, climbing from 3,297 on 25 October, and 15 new deaths.
Updated
European Commission President warns of global 'race against time' against Omicron
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said the world faces a “race against time” to understand Omicron and potentially combat the new variant.
“We know we are now in a race against time,” von der Leyen said on Sunday, AFP reported. She called for the public to take precautions now – so scientists have time to understand Omicron and chart a path forward.
“The scientists and manufacturers need two to three weeks to have a full picture about the quality of the mutations of this Omicron variant,” she said.
It comes after BioNTech said it could tweak its Covid vaccine, made with Pfizer, in 100 days if needed.
“We need to buy time,” she said – urging people to get vaccinated, wear masks and socially distance.
Updated
What exactly is the Omicron variant?
The New York Times has this helpful explainer.
Each coronavirus contains nearly 30,000 letters of RNA. This genetic information allows the virus to infect cells and hijack them to make new viruses.
Omicron carries about 50 mutations not seen in combination before, including more than 30 mutations on the spike protein that the coronavirus uses to attach to cells.
The spike protein has several mutations found in other variants of concern, including D614G, N501Y, K417N and E484A, which lies at the same location as E484K, the “Eek” mutation.
More research is needed to determine whether Omicron’s collection of mutations will give the variant an advantage over widely circulating variants like Delta, or cause more severe disease.
Updated
UK reports 37,681 new Covid cases and 51 deaths
The UK reported 37,681 new Covid infections in the past 24 hours, down from the 49,344 new positive tests on Friday. The seven-day average is now 43,228 new cases a day.
A further 51 Covid-related deaths were reported on Sunday, down from 131 on Saturday and 160 on Friday. (Reported figures tend to be lower at weekends.)
In efforts to suppress the virus and stamp out new Omicron cases, the UK will re-introduce temporary measures from Tuesday for compulsory mask-wearing on public transport and in shops.
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UK records third positive Omicron infection
The UK has recorded its third case of the new Omicron variant.
The UK Health Security Agency said the individual, who has since left the UK, had travelled to southern Africa.
“Our advanced sequencing capabilities enable us to find variants and take rapid action to limit onward spread,” Jenny Harries, chief executive of UKHSA, said in a statement.
“It is very likely that we will find more cases over the coming days as we are seeing in other countries globally and as we increase case detection through focused contact tracing.”
The Sun’s political editor, Harry Cole, tweets that a big contact tracing operation is under way in the London borough of Westminster, where the individual visited.
Third case of Omicron confirmed…
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) November 28, 2021
The individual tested positive after travel to the UK and is linked to travel to Southern Africa. Has now left country…
But…
Big contact tracing operation underway in Westminster where they visited !
It’s me, Jem Bartholomew, taking control of the blog from my colleague Charlie Moloney from here.
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Summary
I will be handing over blogging duties very soon. These are the main developments in the pandemic in the past few hours:
- Authorities in the Netherlands confirmed that 13 people who arrived on flights from South Africa on Friday have so far tested positive for the new omicron coronavirus variant, AP reports. The 61 people who tested positive for the virus on Friday were immediately put into isolation while sequencing was carried out to establish if they had the new variant.
- Under-40s in the UK “should expect” to get the booster earlier than previously thought. The deputy chair of the the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI ), said there was a “strong argument” for raising immunity in the whole community.
- The UK health secretary has said there is a reason to think that the Omicron variant may make the current vaccines “less effective”. Sajid Javid said that mandatory mask wearing on public transport and in shops would come into force on Tuesday in a “temporary” measure in response to the new strain.
Updated
Morocco is suspending all incoming air travel from around the world, starting on Monday, for two weeks because of the rapid spread of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus, its foreign ministry has announced.
The ministry tweeted that the decision was taken to “preserve the achievements realised by Morocco in the fight against the pandemic, and to protect the health of citizens”. It noted the spread of Omicron in Africa and Europe, AP reports.
Morocco kept its borders closed for months in 2020 because of the pandemic, fearing that its health system would not be able to manage the surges of patients seen in Europe.
The kingdom in north Africa has had one of Africa’s highest rates of confirmed infections, but is also at the forefront of the continent’s vaccination effort, with 66% of its population having received at least one dose.
Updated
Several thousand people protested in Prague against anti-coronavirus restrictions on Sunday as many Czech hospitals halted non-urgent procedures in the face of one of the world’s fastest rates of new infections.
Gathered in a park overlooking the Czech capital’s centre, protesters waved national flags and carried signs with slogans such as: “Get vaccinated? Over your dead bodies”.
The outgoing government toughened measures on Thursday, including a ban on Christmas markets, which was one of the main themes at Sunday’s rally.
“I am here to fight for freedom. I am here because I don’t agree with what is happening today,” Jiri Hulec told Reuters.
Czech hospitals, including the largest one, Prague’s Motol, have ceased planned operations and limited other care in the past days as the number of patients with Covid-19 has doubled to around 6,000 over the past three weeks.
Updated
The top US infectious disease official said Americans should be prepared to fight the spread of the new Covid-19 variant Omicron, but it is too soon to say what actions are needed, including possible mandates or lockdowns.
Dr Anthony Fauci told ABC News on Sunday that the United States must do “anything and everything” amid likely cases of the variant, but it was “too early to say” whether new lockdowns or mandates were needed, Reuters reports.
He said it was possible that the new variant was already in the United States, although no official case has been confirmed.
Updated
Germany said on Sunday it had detected a total of three cases of the new Omicron coronavirus variant after a suspected infection in the western state of Hesse was confirmed.
“The sequencing has confirmed the result - the suspected case which was made public yesterday morning is the Omicron variant,” Kai Klose, social affairs minister in the state of Hesse tweeted.
On Saturday, he said a suspected Omicron case had been found in a passenger arriving from South Africa in Hesse, home to Frankfurt airport, one of Europe’s busiest air hubs.
On Saturday, health officials in the southern state of Bavaria detected two cases of the Omicron variant, Reuters reports.
Restrictions on air travel from South Africa took effect on Sunday after it was classified as a virus-variant area. This means airlines can fly only Germans to Germany from South Africa and even those who are vaccinated must spend 14 days in quarantine.
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The expert whose modelling helped instigate the first UK lockdown welcomed the new measures to slow the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus but said all options should be kept on the table in case it spreads very rapidly.
Prof Neil Ferguson, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said he expects to see “substantially larger numbers” of the Omicron variant in the coming days in the UK.
He told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend programme: “We together with the Netherlands ... we’re the two European countries with the largest number of passenger flights to and from South Africa, so it’s likely we’ll detect quite a lot more cases in the coming days.”
He said he backs the new measures announced by the government as “proportionate” to slow the spread of the new variant during the “waiting game” over the next two weeks as scientists analyse its properties.
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Craig Revel Horwood said he “hated it” when he could not appear on Strictly Come Dancing last weekend because of a positive Covid test.
The judge was absent from the panel for musical week on 20 and 21 November, when he was replaced by Cynthia Erivo.
Erivo was back on the panel again the following weekend, when she filled in for Motsi Mabuse, who was unable to travel back to the UK after close contact with someone with a positive test.
Revel Horwood told Hello! magazine: “My work ethic is, unless you’re dead you go on stage and Dr Footlights takes care of the rest.
“Even when I had my hip replaced, I was back at work on the Saturday. So I just hated it when they said I couldn’t go in.”
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Dutch authorities confirm 13 Omicron cases and say there may be more
The Dutch public health authority confirmed on Sunday that 13 people who arrived in the Netherlands on flights from South Africa on Friday have so far tested positive for the new omicron coronavirus variant, AP reports.
The 61 people who tested positive for the virus on Friday after arriving on the last two flights to Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport before a flight ban was put in place were immediately put into isolation while sequencing was carried out to establish if they had the new variant.
The public health institute said in a statement that testing was continuing on the samples.
Most of the 61 people who tested positive were put into isolation at a hotel near the airport, while a small number were allowed to sit out their quarantine at home under strict conditions.
“The Omicron variant has so far been identified in 13 of the positive tests. The investigation has not yet been completed. The new variant may be found in more test samples,” the National Institute for Public Health (RIVM) said in a statement.
Updated
The UK government has confirmed that PCR tests will not be required for any passengers travelling from Ireland, the isle of Man or Channel Islands.
Travel will remain free of the new restrictions in the common travel areas.
The British embassy in Dublin confirmed the development this morning.
The confirmation will be a relief to all the Irish families planning their first Christmas in Ireland in two or three years who may otherwise have reviewed or cancelled trips because of onerous cost of tests.
Economics viewpoint: Mandatory face masks are back in England. The fear factor has returned. After months of assuming the Covid-19 pandemic was all but over, the UK government has imposed new restrictions in an attempt to curb the spread of the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Financial markets didn’t wait for the announcement from Downing Street. It is far too early to know how big a threat the new strain poses but investors assumed the worst as soon as the reports arrived from southern Africa. Share prices fell heavily, with airline stocks the hardest hit as travel bans were re-introduced.
Toughening up restrictions in the west in response to Omicron is a classic case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, because for months the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have been warning rich developed countries that an end to the pandemic requires poor people as well as rich to be vaccinated.
Under-40s 'should expect' to get booster earlier because of Omicron
In the UK the deputy chair of the The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI ), said under-40s “should expect” to get the booster earlier than previously thought because of the Omicron variant.
When asked if those aged 18-39 should brace for an extension to the booster programme on Radio 4’s Broadcasting House, Professor Anthony Harnden said: “I think there’s a very good, strong argument for raising the antibody level in the whole of the community.
“So, accelerating the booster programme, both by extending the age range and by reducing the interval between the second dose and the booster dose, will be an acceptable strategy.”
When pushed on whether people aged 18 and over would be invited to get the booster sooner, he added: “Those adults 18 plus will have an offer of a booster earlier than we had previously envisaged.”
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The exemption of the common travel area from new Covid-19 restrictions against the Omicron variant has been welcomed by the Irish Foreign Affairs Minister.
Simon Coveney clarified that travellers from Ireland to the UK will not be affected by the measures against the new Covid-19 variant.
On Saturday the Irish Department of Health announced its own measures to mitigate against Omicron, including mandatory home quarantine regardless of vaccine status.
Returning Irish residents will be required to undergo strict home quarantine regardless of vaccine/recovery/test status, and undergo PCR testing during quarantine.
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The government is “nowhere near” having to reimpose mandatory social distancing and home working to mitigate the threat from the Omicron Covid variant, Sajid Javid has said, adding that he hoped other new measures could be removed within weeks.
Beginning a morning of media interviews after Boris Johnson announced rules to combat the variant, including compulsory masks on public transport and in shops, the health secretary called the plans “proportionate and balanced”.
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The chief medical officer of Moderna has said while Omicron is a “dangerous-looking” variant, he is “optimistic” about fighting it.
Dr Paul Burton said: “I think we have cause to be hopeful, we’ve learnt a lot about this virus in general.
“You know, we’ve learned so much about how to deal with Covid as well, through simple measures, and obviously through vaccines, but until we see how this virus now behaves in populations of older people, people with other comorbidities. We really want to get a handle on exactly how severe the disease could be, I think.”
He added: “This is a dangerous-looking virus, but I think we have many tools in our armamentarium now to get to fight it, so I’m optimistic.”
Dr Burton said researchers will have a better idea about the effectiveness of the current vaccines against Omicron in the “next couple of weeks”, but if a new vaccine is required that could be produced on a large scale by early 2022.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has urged people to act on the assumption the riskier new Omnicron Covid variant is circulating in Scotland and follow all the existing face-covering and restrictions.
Sturgeon told the Andrew Marr programme on BBC1 that the variant, which was first detected in southern Africa, had not yet been found in Scotland. But she added: “I’m asking people to behave in Scotland just now as if it is present.”
She said tougher restrictions, including on travel, could be needed if the variant caught hold. The Scottish government has already matched all the restrictions on travel from southern Africa introduced by the UK government for English airports last week.
“I think we may need to go further to restrict travel in the next few days,” she said. “I think we need to be open minded to doing anything to keep the population safe right now.”
She said that “on the upside”, health experts and ministers knew what to do in these situations, and the vaccines were still effective at limiting its spread and its ill-effects. She urged people to take up vaccines and booster jabs.
Updated
Doctor who discovered Omicron variant says UK 'panicking unnecessarily' and that symptoms 'extremely mild'
The doctor who discovered the Omicron variant said the UK was “panicking unnecessarily” and that the symptoms are “extremely mild”.
Dr Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association, told The Andrew Marr Show she first encountered the variant in a man in his early 30s who presented with tiredness and a mild headache, but none of the usual coronavirus symptoms.
She said: “What we are seeing clinically in south Africa, and remember I’m at the epicentre - that’s where I’m practising - it’s extremely mild. For us, that’s mild cases.”
When asked if the UK was “panicking unnecessarily”, she said: “I think you already have it there in your country and you’re not knowing it, and I would say, yes, at this stage I would say definitely.
“Two weeks from now maybe we will say something different.”
Updated
The UK shadow foreign secretary said Labour supports measures on mask wearing but that her party “desperately” wants to see the Government “tighten up” travel restrictions.
Speaking to Trevor Phillips On Sunday on Sky News, Lisa Nandy said her party will consider the plans in Parliament on Monday but there are “a number of outstanding holes in our defences” that need to be addressed.
Asked if she accepts the Government’s strategy laid out on Saturday, she said: “There is a balance to be struck, I think the Health Secretary is right about that.
“We don’t think the Government has been getting the balance right up to now. That’s why we support the measures to bring in greater use of masks, mandatory masks in some settings, and we’ll be asking questions about whether the scientific basis for that suggests that that needs to go further.
“We desperately want to see them tighten up the travel restrictions. There is a real problem when for 18 months the Government has been warned that there are holes in those defences and still hasn’t taken action to plug what you rightly suggested are just practical measures that could be dealt with in order to stop the new variant spreading around the country.”
Updated
UK health secretary says people should continue 'as normal' with Christmas plans
The UK health secretary has said he expects the public to comply with the new rules around mask wearing.
Speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sky, Sajid Javid said that following the news of a new variant: “I do think people will take this more seriously.”
He added that people should make plans for Christmas “as normal” amid questions about another lockdown.
Javid said: “I think it’s fair to say that the nature of this pandemic is it would be irresponsible to make guarantees.
“As for Christmas, I think people should continue with their plans as normal for Christmas, I think it’s going to be a great Christmas.”
Updated
Austria detects its first case of Omicron
Austria has detected its first suspected case of the new Omicron coronavirus variant in the Tirol, Reuters reports.
A traveller who returned from South Africa last week tested positive for COVID-19 with indications of the new variant, though confirmation requires further sequencing over the coming days, Tirol authorities said in a statement.
South Africa’s discovery of the variant has sparked global concern, a wave of travel bans or curbs and a sell-off on financial markets on investor fears that it could stall recovery from the pandemic. Cases were detected in several European countries on Saturday, including Italy and Germany.
Austria had already powered down public life last Monday with its fourth national coronavirus lockdown, becoming the first western European country to reimpose the unpopular measure this autumn owing to surging COVID-19 infections.
Updated
UK health secretary says vaccines may be less effective against Omicron variant
The UK health secretary has said there is a reason to think that the Omicron variant may make the current vaccines “less effective”.
Sajid Javid said that mandatory mask wearing on public transport and in shops would come into force on Tuesday in a “temporary” measure in response to the new strain.
Speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sky said the government’s approach was “proportionate and balanced”, but said the impact of the variant on vaccines was not yet known.
He said: “There is reason to think that maybe, and I stress the word may, that this variant may turn out to make our vaccines less effective, it may not. We just don’t know enough.
“We will learn to live with this.”
Javid said that even if Omicron makes vaccines less effective it was still expected to make only a “small impact”.
Updated
Measures intended to control the spread of the new Omicron coronavirus variant have been described as “a watered-down version of Plan B” by Professor Lawrence Young.
The professor of molecular oncology at the University of Warwick said it is a “shame” the measures introduced by Boris Johnson do not go as far as to advise people to work from home and use vaccine passports.
Speaking to Times Radio, he said: “I think what we’re looking at at the moment is what I call ‘Plan B lite’. It’s a shame that we’re just not going a little bit further.
“That’s not about lockdowns, but it’s about encouraging people to work from home where possible and thinking about how we, you know, dare I say, use some form of vaccine passport just to make sure that we’re all safe.
“So, what we heard yesterday, and what’s likely to happen over the next few weeks, is a watered-down version of Plan B and the hope is that that will be sufficient so we don’t end up in a really difficult situation at Christmas.”
Summary
I will be handing over blogging duties very soon. These are the main developments in the pandemic in the past few hours:
- Cases of the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 are continuing to be detected in countries across the world. Australia confirmed two cases on Sunday, joining Britain, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic among others that have declared cases.
- Boris Johnson said arrivals to the UK have to take a PCR test by the second day of their arrival and self-isolate until they have a negative result after the first cases of the new variant were reported in Nottingham and Essex. Face coverings will also become compulsory in shops and on public transport in the UK from next week.
- US government expert Dr Anthony Fauci said he “would not be surprised” if the Omicron variant was already in the US. President Joe Biden has been briefed on the situation.
- Israel is to ban the entry of visitors from all countries due to the Omicron variant. The country will also reintroduce counter-terrorism phone-tracking technology for contact testing in order to contain the spread of the new strain.
- China would face a ‘colossal” outbreak if it opened up society along the lines of the USA, a study by mathematicians has said. It could have 630,000 Covid-19 infections a day if it dropped its zero-tolerance policies, according to researchers at Peking University.
- There was concernabout the Omicron variant in the Netherlands after 61 people tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving on two flights from South Africa on Friday. Further tests were under way to determine if any of them had the Omicron variant.
- Health officials in New South Wales confirmed two cases after people arrived on a flight from southern Africa on Saturday and tested positive to the coronavirus. Some states and territories are tighteniung up their borders to stop any spread, but New South Wales’s opening up plan remains in place.
Amid all the concern about Omicron it seems like a good idea to re-up this explainer about what we know about the new variant and what the risks might be:
The Maldives said it was barring travellers from seven African countries from Sunday over concerns about the new Omicron variant of COVID-19. Travellers will not be allowed into Maldives from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini, the health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Travellers who arrived from these countries over the past two days will have to undergo 14 days of quarantine.
A quarter of people with severely suppressed immunity that leaves them highly vulnerable to Covid have still not had a third vaccination, according to official figures.
The figure emerged just days after NHS England contacted cancer specialists and services across the country asking them to assist in boosting the numbers, with concerns that it means more than 100,000 extremely vulnerable people are yet to have their third jab. A letter from the NHS sent earlier this month said that 30% were still without the third vaccination, which has since fallen to 25%.
You can read Michael Savage’s full story here:
Two cases of Omicron found in Australia
Back to Australia, and health authorities in New South Wales have confirmed that the two overseas travellers that tested positive overnight have been infected with the new Omicron variant.
Both passengers arrived from southern Africa on Saturday evening, and underwent testing last night.
Both cases are asymptomatic and in isolation at special health accommodation, and both are fully vaccinated.
As curbs spread around Europe along with the new variant, Switzerland has widened quarantine requirements to travellers arriving from Britain, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Egypt and Malawi, where cases have been detected, its health ministry said.
On Friday, Switzerland banned direct flights from South Africa and the surrounding region due to the detection of a new COVID-19 variant, while also imposing restrictions on travel from other countries including Hong Kong, Israel and Belgium.
Entry from those countries would only be possible for Swiss citizens or those with a residence permit in Switzerland or the broader Schengen area.
Now, following the detection of new Omicron cases, travellers from Britain, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Egypt and Malawi will need to present a negative COVID-19 test and quarantine for ten days as well, the Federal Office of Public Health said in a tweet.
The Australian Red Cross has sent a large delivery amount of PPE to Papua New Guinea to be distributed to remote hard-to-reach communities as the nation continues to battle coronavirus.
The critical delivery includes:
- 636,000 surgical masks
- 65,000 examination gloves
- 360 infrared thermometers
- 24,000 bottles of hand-sanitizer
PNG has officially confirmed almost 35,000 coronavirus cases and 542 deaths but it is believed many more cases and deaths are going unreported in the nation of nine million where vaccination hesitancy is reported to be high.
China could face 'colossal' outbreak if restrictions eased
China could face more than 630,000 Covid-19 infections a day if it dropped its zero-tolerance policies by lifting travel curbs, according to a study by Peking University mathematicians, Reuters reports.
In the report by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the mathematicians said China could not afford to lift travel restrictions without more efficient vaccinations or specific treatments.
Using data for August from the United States, Britain, Spain, France and Israel, the mathematicians assessed the potential results if China adopted the same pandemic control tactics as those countries.
China’s daily new cases would reach at least 637,155 if it adopted the United States’ pandemic strategy, the report said.
And daily cases would hit 275,793 if China took the same approach as Britain and 454,198 if it imitated France, it said.
“The estimates revealed the real possibility of a colossal outbreak which would almost certainly induce an unaffordable burden on the medical system,” the report said.
“Our findings have raised a clear warning that, for the time being, we are not ready to embrace ‘open-up’ strategies resting solely on the hypothesis of herd immunity induced by vaccination advocated by certain western countries.”
Updated
Germany has reported another 44,401 Covid cases, tasking its total to 5,761,696. There were also another 104 deaths from Covid in the past 24 hours, meaning that 100,883 people have died from the disease.
The health ministry in the German state of Bavaria announced on Saturday two confirmed cases of the Omicron variant.
The two people entered Germany at Munich airport on 24 November, before Germany designated South Africa as a virus-variant area, and were now isolating, said the ministry, indicating without stating explicitly that the people had travelled from South Africa.
Financial markets face turbulent week
World stock markets plunged on Friday as news emerged of the Omicron variant – and futures trading suggests more steep falls when trading resumes on Monday.
Dow Jones closed down >900 points in biggest drop since Oct 2020 as new COVID variant sparks market plunge. It's the worst Black Friday on record for the Dow, acc to Dow Jones Market Data. WHO says new Coronavirus strain detected in Southern Africa is variant of concern. pic.twitter.com/CsxdzsfK9r
— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) November 26, 2021
Wall Street’s Dow Jones industrial average is on course to shed around 2.5% on Monday and the broader S&P500 is tracking for losses of 2.2%. Other major indices are heading the same way with the FTSE100 expected to drop 3.8%, the Hang Seng seen losing 1.2%%, and the Nikkei to drop more than 3%.
However, there’s a lot that could happen in the meantime. If evidence emerges that the new variant is not as dangerous as previous ones, markets could rebound very sharply so the futures indices will be closely watched for the next 24 hours in the build up to the next session opening in Asia Pacific.
Worth quoting comments by Dr Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association and a practising GP based in Pretoria, who said it was “premature” to make predictions of a health crisis.
“It’s all speculation at this stage. It may be it’s highly transmissible, but so far the cases we are seeing are extremely mild,” she said”
Australian states and territories are braced for the spread of Omicron, with authorities conceding on Sunday that positive cases were inevitable.
Both the NSW and Victorian governments have introduced 72-hour isolation requirements for all fully vaccinated international arrivals, regardless of where they have arrived from.
NSW health minister Brad Hazzard said the new variant may “already be here” and that little is known about it.
“What we do know is that it’s going to be hard to ascertain just how many people are here who have been in those African nations.”
Full story here:
Updated
Israel bans all foreigners from midnight on Sunday
Israel is banning the entry of all foreigners into the country, making it the first country to shut its borders completely in response to the Omicron variant. It also said it would use counter-terrorism phone-tracking technology in order to contain the spread of the Omicron variant.
Naftali Bennett, the prime minister, said in a statement that the ban, pending government approval, would last 14 days.
Officials hope that within that period there will be more information on how effective COVID-19 vaccines are against Omicron, which was first detected in South Africa and has been dubbed a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization.
“Our working hypotheses are that the variant is already in nearly every country,” interior minister Ayelet Shaked told N12’s “Meet the Press,” “and that the vaccine is effective, although we don’t yet know to what degree.”
Israelis entering the country, including those who are vaccinated, will be required to quarantine, Bennett said. The ban will come into effect at midnight between Sunday and Monday. A travel ban on foreigners coming from most African states was imposed on Friday.
Updated
Czech Republic confirms Omicron case
A hospital in the northern Czech city of Liberec has confirmed a case of the Omicron strain in a female patient, a spokesman told Czech Television on Saturday.
Czech prime minister Andrej Babis said earlier Saturday that the woman had been in Namibia and flew back to the Czech Republic via South Africa and Dubai. Babis said the woman was vaccinated and had mild symptoms of the disease.
“Given where the patient came from and all the circumstances, we can confirm the strain has been confirmed,” the spokesman added.
The Czech Republic is currently grappling with a spike in Covid-19 infections making it one of the worst-hit countries in the world in terms of infections per capita.
Australia toughens up restrictions
Australia’s federal health minister said he was meeting the prime minister, Scott Morrison, and the chief health officer, and state and territory counterparts to discuss developments around the Omicron Covid-19 variant.
Greg Hunt did a swift u-turn on Saturday by shutting the country’s border with South Africa and reinstating mandatory quarantine for arrivals from nine southern African countries as concerns about Omicron mounted. States such as South Australia are already tightening up their borders again after only beginning to emerge from the Delta lockdown in place in much of the country since June and July.
New South Wales, however, is sticking with its reopening plan. State premier Dominic Perrottet said it was “inevitable” that more variants will emerge and enter Australia, and said the state was taking a “precautionary approach” with the changes to international arrivals announced yesterday.
“We need to learn to live alongside the virus and to live alongside the various strains of the virus that will come our way, and the best thing we can do is get vaccinated and get booster shots,” he said.
“Urgent” genomic sequencing is under way after two passengers on a Qatar Airways flight arrived in Sydney on Saturday night. Perrottet confirmed that 29 people arrived in Sydney yesterday, after spending time in southern Africa.
Mexico recorded 245 coronavirus deaths on Saturday and an additional 2,956 confirmed cases, according to health ministry data, bringing the overall death toll to 293,859 and the number of cases to 3,882,792.
US praises South African response
The US has praised South Africa for quickly identifying the Omicron strain and sharing the information with the world, AFP reports.
In what has been viewed as a swipe at China’s handling of the original outbreak of Covid in 2019, secretary of state Antony Blinken spoke with South Africa’s international relations and cooperation minister, Naledi Pandor, and discussed cooperation on vaccinating people in Africa.
“Secretary Blinken specifically praised South Africa’s scientists for the quick identification of the Omicron variant and South Africa’s government for its transparency in sharing this information, which should serve as a model for the world,” a statement from the State Department said.
First under Donald Trump and now under president Joe Biden, the US has repeatedly criticised China as not being forthcoming on the origins of the coronavirus.
Morning/afternoon/evening wherever you are in the world, and welcome to the Guardian’s rolling updates about the coronavirus pandemic.
The main developoments in the past 24 hours or so concern the rush to contain the Omicron variant as cases are detected in countries around the world.
Here is a quick summary of where we are:
- Britain, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic detected cases of the new Omicron coronavirus variant on Saturday. There was also concern in the Netherlands after 61 people tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving on two flights from South Africa on Friday. Further tests were under way to determine if any of them had the Omicron variant.
- Boris Johnson said arrivals to the UK have to take a PCR test by the second day of their arrival and self-isolate until they have a negative result after the first two cases of the new variant were reported in Nottingham and Essex. Face coverings will also become compulsory in shops and on public transport in the UK from next week.
- US government expert Dr Anthony Fauci said he “would not be surprised” if the Omicron variant was already in the US. President Joe Biden has been briefed on the situation.
- Israel is to ban the entry of visitors from all countries due to the Omicron variant. The country will also reintroduce counter-terrorism phone-tracking technology for contact testing in order to contain the spread of the new strain.
- Health officials in New South Wales, Australia, have begun urgent testing after two people who arrived on a flight from southern Africa overnight tested positive to the coronavirus. But the state’s opening up plan remains in place for now. Follow all the developments in Australia at our separate live blog here.
- Two people with the new variant entered Germany at Munich airport on 24 November, before South Africa was designated a virus variant area and were now isolating, Bavaria’s health ministry said. Earlier, officials in the western state of Hesse, home to Frankfurt airport, said a suspected case of the Omicron variant had been found in a passenger arriving from South Africa.
- A case of the Omicron variant has been detected in Italy. The genome was sequenced at the Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology, Virology and Bioemergency Diagnostics of the Sacco Hospital in Milan from a positive sample of a patient coming from Mozambique.
