People walk along Nevsky Prospekt in St Petersburg. Russia reported a record 52,212 new Covid-19 cases in the last day. Photograph: Anatoly Maltsev/EPA
People walk along Nevsky Prospekt in St Petersburg. Russia reported a record 52,212 new Covid-19 cases in the last day. Photograph: Anatoly Maltsev/EPA
That’s it from me, Helen Livingstone, and the Guardian’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic for now.
Before I go, here’s a roundup of the latest developments:
The Omicron variant has moved the Covid-19 pandemic into a new phase and could bring it to an end in Europe, the WHO Europe director has said. “It’s plausible that the region is moving towards a kind of pandemic endgame,” Hans Kluge told AFP, adding that Omicron could infect 60% of Europeans by March.
A fourth dose of Covid-19 vaccine given to people over 60 in Israel made them three times more resistant to serious illness than thrice-vaccinated people in the same age group, Israel’s health ministry has said.
About 50,000 people protesting against Covid-19 restrictions in Belgium have been dispersed by police. The country is facing a fifth wave of Covid-19 infections, with the peak not expected for at least a couple of weeks.
US authorities are confident most states will soon reach and pass a peak in coronavirus Omicron variant cases, even as hospitals struggle to cope with the current surge, Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser has said.
Nearly half of those who became ill with Covid in the first wave of infections may have long-term and even permanent changes to their sense of smell, according to preliminary research from Sweden.
New measures are being introduced in New Zealand as coronavirus cases could rise to more than 1,000 a day driven by the more transmissible Omicron variant. Prime minister Jacinda Ardern has postponed her planned wedding in response.
Britainreported 74,799 new Covid-19 cases and 75 deaths within 28 days of a positive test on Sunday, government data showed. The number of positive tests has fallen by 15.4% to 641,687 in the last seven days, according to the data.
Beijing Olympics organisers say they have confirmed 72 cases of Covid-19 among 2,586 Games-related personnel entering China from 4 January to 22 January, with no cases among 171 athletes and team officials arriving in that period.
The United States, the World Health Organization’s top donor, is resisting proposals to make the agency more independent, four officials involved in the talks said, raising doubts about the Biden administration’s long-term support for the UN agency.
Hong Kong authorities said on Sunday one hamster surrendered to authorities by pet owners had tested positive for Covid-19 and that more than 2,200 hamsters had been culled as the city struggled to contain an outbreak.
The Omicron-fuelled wave of Covid-19 infections has led wealthy countries to intensify their recruitment of nurses from poorer parts of the world, worsening dire staffing shortages in overstretched workforces there, the International Council of Nurses has said according to Reuters.
Sickness, burnout and staff departures amid surging Omicron cases have driven absentee rates to levels not yet seen during the two-year pandemic, said Howard Catton, CEO of the Geneva-based group that represents 27 million nurses and 130 national organisations.
To plug the gap, Western countries have responded by hiring army personnel as well as volunteers and retirees but many have also stepped up international recruitment as part of a trend that is worsening health inequity, he continued.
“We have absolutely seen an increase in international recruitment to places like the UK, Germany, Canada and the United States,” Catton said in a Reuters interview based on a report he co-authored on Covid-19 and the global nursing force.
Nurses tend to a patient suffering with Covid-19 on the critical care unit at the Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, UK. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA
“I really fear this ‘quick fix solution’ – it’s a bit similar to what we’ve been seeing with PPE (personal protective equipment) and vaccines where rich countries have used their economic might to buy and to hoard – if they do that with the nursing workforce it will just make the inequity even worse.”
Even before the pandemic there was a global shortage of 6 million nurses, with nearly 90% of those shortages in low and lower-middle-income countries, according to ICN data.
Some of the recent recruits to rich countries have come from sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, and parts of the Caribbean, Catton said, saying that nurses were often motivated by higher salaries and better terms than at home.
The ICN report said this process was also being facilitated by giving nurses preferred immigration status.
“The bottom line is that some people would look at this and say this is rich countries offloading the costs of educating new nurses and health workers,” he said.
Even wealthy countries will struggle to cope with the “mountains of backlog of unmet care” when the pandemic winds down, Catton warned, calling for more investment and a ten-year plan to strengthen the workforce.
“We need a coordinated, collaborative, concerted global effort which is underpinned by serious investment, not just warm words and platitudes and applause,” he said.
Australians may not be able to travel without quarantine to Europe even if they are fully vaccinated, with both the European Council and the United States issuing warnings about the severity of the Omicron wave down under.
One day later, on 18 January, the United States updated its travel advice for Australia to “do not travel” after the Centre for Disease Control issued a level four travel health notice for Australia due to “a very high level of COVID-19 in the country”.
The European Council list is reviewed every two weeks, so if Australia’s case numbers continue to fall it could be reinstated as early as next week.
The recommendation is not legally binding, and countries can set their own border restrictions. Italy, Greece and Cyprus have already ignored the ruling. Many European countries are also experiencing a large number of Covid cases, including France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Denmark.
The European Council recommended that states gradually lift their travel restrictions for people coming from New Zealand, Indonesia, South Korea, Bahrain, Chile, Colombia, Kuwait, Peru, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Uruguay, and China, subject to confirmation of reciprocity
Good morning, this is Helen Livingstone taking over from Charlie Moloney to bring you the day’s Covid news.
First of all, an update from Australia, where the two biggest states, New South Wales and Victoria, have reported a combined 41 deaths and almost 27,000 new cases.
NSW COVID-19 update – Monday 24 January 2022
In the 24-hour reporting period to 8pm last night:
- 95.3% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine - 93.9% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine pic.twitter.com/qwPkAfdWyt
Millions of patients are currently on tenterhooks, often in agony, hoping the NHS will find time to treat them. In my local hospital trust alone, there are 100,000 people stuck in this limbo, with 8,000 of them waiting for more than a year to date. The backlog for operations has reached an all-time high, with Covid making an already difficult situation impossible. Those patients expecting surgery may be shocked by how the current system could encourage those who treat them to see pound signs rather than patients.
During the pandemic, the government has poured funding into private healthcare firms, nominally to relieve pressure on overstretched NHS hospitals. The kind of spending that was once deployed for cataracts and hip operations is now being used routinely to deliver cancer and cardiology care.
Nobody objects to every effort being made to cut waiting lists: but that has not happened, and costs have also rocketed. During the Covid crisis, private companies have pocketed millions in furlough payments while billing the NHS for services that we now know weren’t fully used...
Britain reported 74,799 new Covid-19 cases and 75 deaths within 28 days of a positive test on Sunday, government data showed. The number of positive tests has fallen by 15.4% to 641,687 in the last seven days, according to the data.
Beijing Olympics organisers said on Sunday they had confirmed 72 cases of Covid-19 among 2,586 Games-related personnel entering China from 4 January to 22 January, with no cases among 171 athletes and team officials arriving in that period.
The United States, the World Health Organization’s top donor, is resisting proposals to make the agency more independent, four officials involved in the talks said, raising doubts about the Biden administration’s long-term support for the UN agency.
Hong Kong authorities said on Sunday one hamster surrendered to authorities by pet owners had tested positive for Covid-19 and that more than 2,200 hamsters had been culled as the city struggled to contain an outbreak.
About 50,000 people protesting against Covid-19 restrictions in Belgium have been dispersed by police, Reuters reports.
European Commission foreign policy chief Josep Borrell thanked police and condemned “the senseless destruction and violence” in a tweet that showed him standing in front of a broken pane of glass.
Some protesters let off fireworks as police advanced into a park. Riot officers ringed the water cannon. “I’m not an anti-vaxxer, I’m anti-dictator,” read another placard.
Belgium is facing a fifth wave of Covid-19 infections, with the peak not expected for at least a couple of weeks.
Some 89% of Belgian adults are fully vaccinated and 67% have now also received a booster shot.
US authorities are confident most states will soon reach and pass a peak in coronavirus Omicron variant cases, even as hospitals struggle to cope with the current surge, Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser said on Sunday.
“I think [we’re] as confident as you can be,” Anthony Fauci told ABC’s This Week. “You never want to be overconfident when you’re dealing with this virus, because it has certainly surprised us in the past.
“But, if you look at the patterns that we have seen in South Africa, in the UK and in Israel, and in the [US] north-east and New England and upper midwest states, they have peaked and started to come down rather sharply.
“There are still some southern states and western states that continue to go up but if the pattern follows the trend that we’re seeing in other places … I believe that you will start to see a turnaround throughout the entire country.”
The Omicron variant has moved the Covid-19 pandemic into a new phase and could bring it to an end in Europe, the WHO Europe director has said.
“It’s plausible that the region is moving towards a kind of pandemic endgame,” Hans Kluge told AFP in an interview on Sunday, adding that Omicron could infect 60% of Europeans by March.
Once the surge of Omicron currently sweeping across Europe subsides, “there will be for quite some weeks and months a global immunity, either thanks to the vaccine or because people have immunity due to the infection, and also lowering seasonality”.
“We anticipate that there will be a period of quiet before Covid-19 may come back towards the end of the year, but not necessarily the pandemic coming back,” Kluge said.
A fourth dose of Covid-19 vaccine given to people over 60 in Israel made them three times more resistant to serious illness than thrice-vaccinated people in the same age group, Israel’s health ministry said on Sunday.
The ministry also said the fourth dose, or second booster, doubled resistance against infection compared with those in the age group who received only three shots of the vaccine.
Israel began offering a fourth dose of the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine to people over 60 earlier this month, Reuters reports.
A medical worker prepares a vaccine dose as Israel kicks off a coronavirus vaccination drive at Tel Aviv Sourasky medical center at Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters
Nearly half of those who became ill with Covid in the first wave of infections may have long-term and even permanent changes to their sense of smell, according to preliminary research from Sweden.
A sudden loss of smell, or an impaired or distorted perception of odours, emerged as an unusual symptom of Covid early on in the pandemic. While many people swiftly recovered, others found that their sense of smell never quite returned to normal.
To find out how common the impairments might be, scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm ran comprehensive tests on 100 individuals who caught Covid in the first wave of infections that swept through Sweden in spring 2020.
Their early findings show that 18 months after recovering from Covid, very few people – only 4% – had lost their sense of smell entirely, but a third had a reduced ability to detect odours, and nearly half complained of parosmia, where the sense of smell is distorted. Most of those with a reduced sense of smell were unaware of it before they joined the study.
The Queen flew by helicopter to her Sandringham estate in East England on Sunday after delaying her traditional Christmas trip for a month due to COVID-19, a Buckingham Palace source said.
Reuters reports that the queen flew from Windsor Castle to the residence in Norfolk, where the monarch had spent Christmas with members of her family for decades before the pandemic struck in 2020.
The 95-year-old monarch has been at Windsor Castle to the west of London for most of the pandemic.
She will celebrate her Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years on the throne, this year.
Queen Elizabeth II flew by helicopter to her Sandringham estate in East England on Sunday after delaying her traditional Christmas trip for a month due to COVID-19. Photograph: Reuters
Some American conservatives are taking aim at policies that allow doctors to consider race as a risk factor when allocating scarce COVID-19 treatments, saying the protocols discriminate against white people.
The wave of infections brought on by the omicron variant and a shortage of treatments have focused attention on the policies, AP reports.
Medical experts say the opposition is misleading. Health officials have long said there is a strong case for considering race as one of many risk factors in treatment decisions. And there is no evidence that race alone is being used to decide who gets medicine.
The issue came to the forefront last week after Fox News host Tucker Carlson, former President Donald Trump and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio jumped on the policies. In recent days, conservative law firms have pressured a Missouri-based health care system, Minnesota and Utah to drop their protocols and sued New York state over allocation guidelines or scoring systems that include race as a risk factor.
There were 74,799 new cases of Covid-19 reported in the UK on Sunday, the Government said.
The Government also said a further 75 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, bringing the total to 153,862.
A total of 52,223,105 first doses of Covid-19 vaccine had been delivered in the UK by January 22, Government figures show.
Some 48,158,421 second doses have been delivered, an increase of 42,473.
A combined total of 36,890,079 booster and third doses have been given, a day-on-day rise of 68,795.
A member of the public walks past a piece of street art by ‘Palley’ that features Bruce Lee kicking a coronavirus molecule in Glasgow’s East End Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA
Here’s a round-up of today’s Covid-19 news so far.
Russia has again broken its record for the number of new Covid-19 cases, after reporting 63,205 new infections.It is the third day in a row it has beaten its highest previous total. Another 679 people have died, bringing the death toll to 326,112.
Two million people will be tested for Covid in Beijing, a fortnight before the Winter Olympics is set to begin. An outbreak of nine cases saw restrictions introduced as athletes, delegates and other personnel start arriving in the city.
Thousands of protestors have marched through Brussels opposing coronavirus rules. Police have used tear gas and water cannon against demonstrators who are angry about restrictions including mandatory vaccinations and Covid passports.
A hamster surrendered to Hong Kong authorities by its owners has tested positive for Covid-19 and more than 2,200 hamsters have been culled, as the city grapples to contain an outbreak of the virus.
England has been labelled an “outlier” by Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon over vaccine passports and mask wearing in public places, she told BBC One’s Sunday Morning politics programme.
Dominic Raab told Sophie Raworth, who is now fronting the BBC show, that Boris Johnson should resign if he misleads parliament, in keeping with the ministerial code.
Senior World Health Organization official Maria van Kerkhove has said the Omicron variant will not the last mutation of concern, adding that globally the population is still vulnerable.
New measures are being introduced in New Zealand as coronavirus cases could rise to more than 1,000 a day driven by the more transmissible Omicron variant. Prime minister Jacinda Ardern has postponed her planned wedding in response.
As reported earlier, thousands of protesters are demonstrating in Brussels, Belgium today against Covid-19 measures in the country. Police have set off tear gas and used water cannon in an attempt to control and deter crowds.
Police set off tear gas against protestors during a demonstration in Brussels. Demonstrators gathered in the Belgian capital to protest what they regard as overly extreme measures by the government, including a vaccine pass regulating access to certain places and activities and possible compulsory vaccines. Photograph: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP
Crowds march through Brussels on Sunday as part of a demonstration organised by Europeans United. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock
It’s not just people who are feeling the effects of the pandemic, as a cull of hamsters is underway in Hong Kong.
On Tuesday officials ordered the killing of hamsters from dozens of pet shops after tracing a Covid-19 outbreak to a worker and asked people to surrender any of the animals bought on or after 22 December. One who had been surrendered to authorities has tested positive.
While a handful of hamsters had already tested positive for the virus, this case is the first involving a hamster in the care of a pet owner that has tested positive.
