(Bloomberg) — Global Covid-19 infections rose by almost a third to a record 1.73 million, making Wednesday the third consecutive day the world has recorded more than a million new cases in 24 hours.
Countries including Italy and Australia are dialing back their Covid curbs even as omicron advances, in an effort to keep essential services running. The U.K. began setting up care hubs to prepare for a potential surge in admissions.
More evidence is emerging that omicron may be less dangerous, particularly in vaccinated people. Virus deaths in the U.S. declined and a study showed a booster shot of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine significantly reduces hospitalization.
Key Developments:
- Virus Tracker: Cases approach 284.7 million; deaths pass 5.4 million
- Vaccine Tracker: More than 9.09 billion shots given
- Errors, inaction sent a deadly Covid variant around the world
- As omicron spreads, so does demand to ‘up your mask game’
- Pfizer, Merck pills hinge on Biden plan to expand testing
- What Covid therapies exist, and what omicron changes: QuickTake
Germany Adds Italy, Canada to Risk List (6:18 a.m. NY)
Germany put Italy, Canada and Malta on its high-risk list, meaning travelers from those countries need to quarantine for 10 days unless they’re vaccinated, recovered or can present a negative test five days after arrival. The U.S. and dozens of other countries are already on the list.
Germany’s contagion rate ticked up on Thursday, rising to 207.4 infections per 100,000 people over the past seven days. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has expressed concern that the data don’t accurately reflect the current outbreak because of staffing issues over the Christmas holidays. According to a report in Spiegel magazine, he’s looking at shortening the 14-day quarantine after contact with an infected person due to concern public services and parts of the economy could run into staffing shortages.
Omicron Spreads in Post-Lockdown Austria (6:49 p.m. HK)
Austria recorded an increased case count for a second day, suggesting the spread of the omicron variant was overturning the benefits of a three-week national lockdown.
Authorities registered 187 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the seven days through Thursday, up from a nine-week low on Tuesday. Still, hospitalizations continued to drop.
Austrian officials have tightened travel requirements to delay what it sees as an inevitable new wave of infections.
Italy Approves Two Antiviral Drugs (6 p.m. HK)
Italy’s medicines agency approved the use of two antiviral drugs, Molnupiravir and Remdesivir, for the treatment of not hospitalized virus patients at risk of development severe COVID-19.
Oral antiviral Molnupiravir will be distributed to regional health authorities from Jan. 4.
Hong Kong Bans Flights for Two Weeks (5:47 p.m. HK)
Hong Kong is closing another three routes operated by three airlines from Dec. 30 to Jan. 12 as they violated Covid-19 prevention rules, according to a government statement.
The airlines affected are Finnair, Turkish Airlines and Cebu Pacific Air. Hong Kong reported 11 new imported omicron cases, bringing the total to 81.
U.K. Erects Temporary Care Centers (5:12 p.m. HK)
The U.K.’s National Health Service is setting up so-called Nightingale care hubs to prepare for a potential surge in Covid-19 admissions due to the omicron variant.
The temporary structures will be capable of providing diagnostics and emergency care to about 100 patients and will be erected in the grounds of eight hospitals across the country, the NHS said in a statement Thursday.
Global Cases Surge 32% to New Record (3:30 p.m. HK)
More than 1.7 million new Covid-19 cases were recorded on Wednesday, a 32% increase from a day earlier and a new global record, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
It’s the third day in a row that infections have surpassed the 1 million mark, driven by the highly mutated omicron variant. Its greater transmissibility, combined with a shorter incubation period, ability to evade existing immunity and higher reproduction number, is expected to spur more records in the days to come.
Taliban Requests WHO Help on Sequencing (3:28 p.m. HK)
The Taliban asked the World Health Organization for help in genomic sequencing of Afghanistan’s Covid-19 samples, according to the country’s Ministry of Health Affairs.
The omicron variant may have already spread across the nation as it shares borders with Pakistan and Iran where the new variant has been detected, Jahid Zahir, the spokesman of the ministry said. The global health body has promised to provide the required technology by next month, he said.
The country of 40 million has so far counted 160,000 total infections and reported more than 7,000 deaths, according to the ministry.
Italy Eases Covid Curbs as Omicron Spreads (3 p.m. HK)
Italy has eased coronavirus quarantine rules and imposed a vaccine mandate for most activities in a bid to keep essential services running, after the country recorded a record number of cases.
Mario Draghi’s government lifted its quarantine requirement for people who come into contact with someone who has Covid-19, as long as they have had three vaccine doses, according to a statement. Isolation time will be cut to five days — from seven — for vaccinated people whose most recent dose was more than 120 days before exposure. Non-vaccinated people still need to isolate for 10 days.
The government also agreed to extend the use of a so-called ‘super Covid pass’ that is given to vaccinated people and those who have recovered from Covid to allow for activities including taking local transportation and outdoor dining.
China Finds Covid in Imported Dragon Fruit (2:15 p.m. HK)
Weak traces of Covid were found in an imported batch of dragon fruit in the Chinese city of Taizhou, according to a statement from the municipal government.
Local authorities locked down the market where the fruit was distributed and started testing all staff, it said. The statement didn’t say which country the fruit had been imported from.
China in September halted imports of dragon fruit from Vietnam for a week, saying it found traces of the virus on the packaging.
Australia Eases Isolation Rules Amid Omicron (1:33 p.m. HK)
Most of Australia will relax isolation rules for close contacts of Covid cases and recognize the results of rapid antigen tests as omicron surges.
Five of its eight states and territories will from Friday allow close household contacts of confirmed cases to isolate for seven days, and then leave after receiving a negative rapid antigen test, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in Canberra.
“With omicron, we cannot have hundreds of thousands of Australians, or more, taken out of circulation based on rules that were set for the delta variant,” he said.
Most states would previously only accept the results of more-reliable PCR tests, while close contacts of confirmed cases were required to isolate for up to two weeks.
China Says Provided 2B Shots to 120 Nations (1:04 p.m. HK)
China provided more than 2 billion Covid shots to more than 120 nations as of Dec. 26, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told state media, according to a statement on the ministry’s website.
China has provided the most Covid vaccines to other nations, contrasting markedly with some countries which didn’t fulfill their promises, Wang said, without elaborating.
India Sees 40% Rise From Day Earlier (12:42 p.m. HK)
India reported over 13,000 new Covid cases on Thursday, a rise of more than 40% over the previous day’s tally. Daily cases have nearly doubled over the last two days, according to government data.
Capital New Delhi and financial hub Mumbai have both seen huge jumps in infections this week and announced restrictions on public gatherings. The federal Health Ministry has so far recorded 961 omicron-related cases spread out across the country.
India had over 400,000 daily new infections during the height of its second wave of delta-fueled infections over the summer. The world’s largest democracy has so far recorded just over 34.8 million cases and more than 480,000 deaths.
J&J Booster Cuts Hospital Stays: Study (12:37 p.m. HK)
Being boosted with Johnson & Johnson’s Covid vaccine significantly reduced the risk that South African health care workers would be hospitalized with an infection caused by the omicron variant, a study showed.
The effectiveness of the booster shot increased with time, rising to 85% protection against hospitalization when the shot was given one to two months earlier, up from 63% for the first two weeks. The study was published on the online website medRxiv, without undergoing peer review.
The results are the first evidence of effectiveness with the company’s booster given six to nine months after an initial vaccination — a key finding given the reliance on the immunization in Africa — the researchers said.
Cathay Cuts Hong Kong Flights (11:20 a.m. HK)
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. said it will make “significant” changes to its Hong Kong flight schedule as the city further tightens quarantine restrictions for aircrew.
It’s a blow for the reeling carrier and for the once bustling Asian financial hub, which has largely closed itself off from the world in an effort to eradicate any vestiges of Covid-19. The airline is tentatively planning to cancel some passenger flights to and from the city through the first quarter of 2022, it said in a statement posted to its website, without elaborating.
U.S. Deaths Fall as Omicron Surges (1:30 p.m. NY)
Virus deaths in the U.S. are declining even as Covid-19 cases rise, according to federal health officials who suggested the surging omicron variant may cause less suffering than other strains.
Cases jumped 60% from the prior week, in large part due to the omicron variant, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said during a briefing. In the same period, deaths fell 7% to a seven-day average of about 1,100 per day.
WHO Sees ‘Bumpy Road’ Until Low Covid Levels (11 a.m. NY)
Vaccine equity and making use of health and social measures can help bring the acute phase of death and hospitalization to an end in 2022, World Health Organization officials said.
“The virus itself is very unlikely to go away completely and will probably settle down into a pattern of transmission at low levels, causing occasional outbreaks in under-vaccinated populations,” said Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s health emergencies program. “But we’re certainly not there yet. This is going to be a bumpy road to low levels of Covid.”
It underlines the importance of getting people everywhere vaccinated as much as possible. Some 92 of 194 member states missed the WHO’s target to inoculate at least 40% of the population in each country, due to limited supplies to low-income countries and vaccines arriving close to expiration dates or without key parts like syringes, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
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