December 29 coronavirus news

Further coronavirus restrictions are needed in England to prevent a "catastrophe" at the start of 2021, a member of the UK government's New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) said Tuesday.

"A 50% increase in transmissibility means that the previous levels of restrictions that worked before won't work now, and so Tier 4 restrictions are likely to be necessary or even higher than that," Hayward added.

His comments come as figures from NHS England released on Monday showed 20,426 Covid-19 hospitalizations in England – more than the almost 19,000 at the peak of the first wave in April. The number of new cases continues to rise, with the UK recording its highest daily figure so far on Monday. 

The government is set to carry out its review of the current coronavirus tiers on Wednesday. 

"I think we're really looking at a situation where we're moving into near lockdown, but we've got to learn the lessons from the first lockdown," Hayward warned.

He added that the increase of coronavirus cases is "largely driven by the new variant."

"We've had, you know, control measures that were previously controlling the old variant that are not enough for this variant. And so if we want to control the new variant we're going to need much tighter restrictions."

Asked about the impact of schools reopening on the spread of the virus, Hayward said, "I think we're going to have to get schools back. Maybe a little bit later, but we're going to have to have increased strict restrictions in other areas of society to pay for that."

"We need to be more or less in a similar sort of message of stay at home unless you really, really have to, so there's that combined with incentivisation of testing, incentivisation of isolation – those sorts of things that will carry us through the next few months while we get as many people as possible vaccinated."

American Airlines is informing most of its employees now returning from furlough because of the stimulus bill that they do not yet need to actually report for duty, CNN has learned. They will, however, be paid with federal funds.  

The stimulus aid package means American and other airlines are putting furloughed employees including pilots and flight attendants back on its payroll. But even though the number of people flying picked up over the holiday period, the airline is still operating a significantly smaller flight schedule – and does not need the influx of thousands more employees in its facilities, cockpits and cabins.    

The airline told pilots in an internal email obtained by CNN that only 60 of the 1,247 pilots it furloughed will soon return to flying – and those 60 are expected to resume flight duties in March.  

The airline did not comment directly on those numbers. Spokesperson Matt Miller told CNN the airline plans “to bring team members back to work as we get through the administrative processes (training, etc.) and based on operational need.”   

But Miller acknowledged that American has “recalled everyone for purposes of reinstating their pay and benefits.” The first paychecks for previously-furloughed employees went out on Christmas Eve, the airline said.   

Previously-furloughed employees who are not needed in the workplace will be paid with federal funds through March 31 under the stimulus act. 

About 500 doses of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine had to be discarded on Saturday at the Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, Wisconsin, due to a storage error, according to a spokesperson for the facility.

"We learned that about 50 vials of Moderna vaccine were inadvertently removed from a pharmacy refrigerator overnight," according to a statement from the medical center. "Our internal review determined that as a result of unintended human error, the vials were not replaced in the refrigerator after temporarily being removed to access other items."

The medical center said it was able to vaccinate some members of its staff within the approved 12-hour post-refrigeration window, but most of the vaccine had to be discarded.

According to the statement, the medical center has vaccinated about 17,000 staff members over the last 12 days.

Pakistan says it might have detected three cases of the new UK Covid-19 strand, according to Pakistan's Sindh province health department.

"Samples of 3 UK returnees show a 95% match to the new Corona Virus variant from UK in the first phase of Genotyping," Sindh Health Department said in a tweet Tuesday.

The health department tested 12 UK returnees for genotyping. Of the 12 people, six tested positive for Covid-19 and three cases showed the new UK variant.

The three cases will undergo another phase of genotyping, the health department added.

If confirmed, these will be the first detected cases of the new Covid-19 variant in Pakistan.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN’s Jim Sciutto Tuesday that his advice for schools coming out of the holidays is that children should be in school wherever possible, but the safety of them and their teachers must be the primary thing. 

He said that looking at the data, as it’s evolved over the last several months, transmission in the context of a school is “considerably lower than what we had though, so it may be that the children are more safe in school than we would have thought they are.”

Fauci said that the primary thing has to be “the safety and the health and the welfare of the children and the teachers.” 

He said that hopefully as teachers get vaccinated as essential personnel, “and we ultimately get to the people who are taking care of the children,” there will be less of a burden of transmission within the context of the school, he said.

People who decline to be vaccinated against coronavirus in Spain will be listed in a new registry that will be shared with European Union Member states, Spain’s Health Minister Salvador Illa said in a television interview on Monday.

Speaking to Spain’s La Sexta TV, Illa stressed that the information will not be made public, in line with Spain’s data protection laws, and vaccinations will not be made compulsory. 

However, health care professionals have since weighed in, saying the idea presents potential dangers.

“The most important thing is to know how the registry will be used,” said Jose Luis Cobos, the deputy director of the Spanish General Council of Nursing. 

“If it’s for public health purposes to better understand COVID, and it’s anonymous, that’s one thing. But if it’s ‘I’m now on the list of the bad people,’ that’s another thing. We don’t think a registry should be used to infringe on liberties, or for employers against people,” he added.

Hours after Illa’s television interview Monday, the head of Spain’s Medicines Agency, Maria Jesus Lamas, told Spain’s SER radio that the new registry would be used “to understand the causes behind declining the vaccination…doubt or rejection.”

“The registry is anonymous. There’s no chance of identifying anyone in the registry,” she added. 

Spain’s 17 regional governments administer vaccines across the nation, and in the southern region of Andalusia, people currently appear in a registry only if they get a vaccine, including its batch number and who administered it for quality control, an Andalusia health department spokesperson told CNN.

The spokesperson also noted that there is no registry for members of the general public who decline vaccinations, although Andalusia health care workers must sign a document if they refuse a vaccination. 

Spain has the world’s ninth largest number of coronavirus cases, at more than 1.8 million, and the tenth highest number of deaths, at just over 50,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The English Premier League has announced 18 new positive Covid-19 tests among its soccer players and club staff in its latest round of testing -- the highest amount of positive tests this season.

The news comes a day after Manchester City's Premier League fixture at Everton was postponed following multiple positive coronavirus test results within the City squad. 

It was the second English Premier League game this season to be called off due to a virus outbreak, after Aston Villa vs. Newcastle United earlier this month.

In a statement on Tuesday the League said that between 21 December and 27 December, 1,479 players and club staff were tested for Covid-19 of which 18 were new positive tests.

As per League protocol, specific details of individuals affected were not disclosed, but players or staff that did test positive must now self-isolate for 10 days.

The previous highest total of positive Covid-19 tests was recorded last month, when 16 individuals returned positive tests between 9 November and 15 November.

A statement from a top Russian official indicates that the country's true coronavirus death toll is more than three times higher than the country's official statistics show.

New data from the country's statistics agency, Rosstat, shows that during the first 11 months of 2020, there was an increase of over 229,700 more deaths in Russia than during the same period of 2019.

Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, who is in charge of the country's coronavirus response, said Monday that "more than 81% of this increase in mortality over this period is due to Covid." According to a CNN calculation, that means 186,000 Russians died from coronavirus in these months.

With an actual Covid-19 death toll of 186,000, Russia would have the third-highest number of any country in the world. Golikova's statement marks the first time a Russian official has acknowledged what critics have long suspected: that Russia's true coronavirus death toll is much higher than the official toll, which is under 56,000.

Russia has reported more than 3 million confirmed cases but maintained it has a comparatively low fatality rate thanks to how it's handled the pandemic.

Doubts over official toll: Critics have expressed overwhelming skepticism of Russia's official figures, saying that the issue lies with the counting method that permits ascribing deaths in coronavirus-infected patients to other causes and allows officials to claim a lower toll.

For instance, Rosstat said that 35,645 people with coronavirus or suspected coronavirus died in November but added that in about a third of fatalities Covid-19 was not considered to be the main cause of death or a major factor in the death at all.

Russia coronavirus task force, which publishes daily statistics on new cases and fatalities using a different methodology than Rosstat, reported only 12,229 coronavirus-related deaths in November.

This counting method differs from World Health Organization guidelines, which states that all deaths related to Covid-19 should be counted unless there is "a clear alternative cause that cannot be related" to the disease.

The coronavirus pandemic continues to rage around the world, with more than 81 million cases recorded globally, and 1.7 million dead, according to Johns Hopkins University.

So far, about 2.1 million vaccine doses have been administered in the US and more than 11.4 million doses have been distributed as of Monday, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Another 4.7 million will be distributed by the end of the week, Assistant Secretary for Health at the US Department of Health and Human Services Admiral Brett Giroir said.

But the number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 is the highest it's ever been in the US, which reported 121,235 people hospitalized on Monday, the biggest figure since the start of the pandemic, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

ICU coronavirus patients have increased from 16% in September to 40% last week, and health experts anticipate holiday travel could mean a "surge on top of a surge."

Here's the latest from around the world:

Wuhan's Covid-19 reality check: Nearly half a million residents in the Chinese city where the novel coronavirus first emerged may have been infected with Covid-19 -- almost 10 times the official number of confirmed cases, according to a study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kamala Harris to receive vaccine: Vice President-elect Harris is expected to receive the first dose of a Covid-19 shot on Tuesday, live on camera from Washington DC, according to the Biden transition team.

Historic Dutch death toll: The Netherlands' increased death toll in 2020 was the worst observed in the country since World War II, according to the government’s statistics body. “In 2020, up to and including week 51, around 162,000 people have died, 13,000 more than expected,” Statistics Netherlands said in a statement.

UK cases surge again: The UK's National Health Service is "back in the eye of the storm," NHS England chief Simon Stevens said Monday. His comments come a day after official figures revealed at least 20,426 hospital beds are now occupied by confirmed coronavirus patients -- more than during the country's first peak of the pandemic in April. 

British military to support mass testing at schools: Some 1,500 armed force personnel are set to assist high schools in England, as part of plans to implement a mass coronavirus testing program in schools ahead of the new term.

US Forces Korea begins vaccine distribution: United States Forces Korea started vaccinating military and civilian health care workers, first responders and the USFK command team at three of its medical facilities on Tuesday.

Philippines and Indonesia impose travel bans: The Philippines has banned inbound foreign travelers from 18 countries and Hong Kong, expanding a current ban on travelers from the UK put in place to stop new coronavirus variants being brought into the country. Meanwhile, Indonesia will close its borders to foreign travelers for two weeks, beginning January 1, to prevent the spread of the new variant.