December 29 coronavirus pandemic and Omicron variant news

This latest wave of Covid-19 cases is “unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” Dr. James Phillips, chief of disaster medicine at George Washington University Hospital, said Wednesday.

The emergency departments, he said, are flooded with mostly mildly symptomatic patients who are there to get tested.

“It’s part of that shortfall of national testing that’s occurring, and it’s all falling on the emergency department,” Phillips said.

The problems are compounded by the highly contagious nature of the Omicron variant.

“While many of us were able to stay safe from getting the Delta virus and the previous variants that have come our way, Omicron is affecting the staff at our hospitals in an unprecedented way,” Phillips said. “We’re really struggling to maintain our workforce, particularly of nurses right now. And that makes wait times even longer in the waiting rooms, and it’s very demoralizing for both the patients and our staff.”

The US is in a “mess right now” due to the surge in Covid-19 cases, Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said. 

“The best way to approach it is to say what we know and what we don’t know,” Osterholm told CNN on Wednesday.

It’s clear that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is highly infectious, but it is unclear how many people will get seriously sick and die, he said. Rather, the country is in “unknown territory.” 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts more than 44,000 new Covid-19 deaths over the next four weeks.

“If you look at those CDC data,” Osterholm said, “if you look at the confidence intervals, you can drive a whole semi load of information through there. There’s a big hole in terms of, just what does the real number look like over the course of the next month? We don’t know.” 

Because scientists still are working with limited information, public health leaders have had to make a best guess about what will work to keep people safe. Osterholm thinks the CDC is being too harshly criticized for its decision to change its guidelines to allow certain people to leave isolation or quarantine after a shorter period of time.

“We don’t know a lot of the things we wish we’d know, but what we do know and what is emerging here is that this country is going to be in the soup in just the next few weeks with so many cases and so many locations, that we’re going to see critical infrastructure as well as health care challenged,” Osterholm added. 

Osterholm predicts that with the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, there may not be enough people who are well enough to keep hospitals, grocery stores and gas stations working. The change in CDC guidelines is not just about helping the economy, he said: “It was to play to the very safety of our everyday lives.”

People should skip big indoor New Year’s Eve parties this year, said Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University.

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus “is extraordinarily contagious, and if you are in a crowd now, and certainly if you’re unvaccinated, you are at great risk of contracting this virus,” Reiner told CNN on Wednesday. 

Reiner said a small celebration at a friend’s house should be OK if everyone is vaccinated and boosted and has tested negative before the party. Big outdoor parties are less risky unless they’re crowded. 

People may be frustrated that they still have to be so careful with get-togethers, but this is a temporary situation, he said. 

“This is not going to go on forever. And the important issues now are to maintain not just the health of the population, which is obviously our primary goal, but also to maintain the health of the people who are manning our hospitals,” Reiner said. 

The upcoming 2022 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York has been postponed.

In a statement posted on the club’s website, the Board of Governors said the decision to postpone the January event to a future date was made “due to the extraordinary spread of the Omicron variant in New York City at this time and the disruptions it is currently creating in travel and event management.”

The statement continued, “The health and safety of all participants in the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show are paramount. We appreciate the community’s continued interest and support as we delay the show to a time when we can safely convene.”

The new dates for the 146th event have yet to be announced.

The annual dog show is the second-oldest continuous sporting event in the United States.

The event is typically held in New York’s Madison Square Garden but was relocated this past June to Lyndhurst Estate in Tarrytown, New York, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A nightclub owner in northern Germany has informed at least 622 people that they must quarantine for 14 days after at least one Omicron infection was detected at a celebration over Christmas.

The “Joy” dance club was holding the event in the Segeberg district of Schleswig-Holstein state. Only people with proof of vaccination, those who recovered from Covid-19 in the past six months plus a negative test, were allowed to enter under Germany’s so-called 2G-plus rule. No masks or social distancing were required.

At least one guest was confirmed to have a Covid-19 infection with the Omicron variant, Segeberg district officials said in a news release Wednesday. Officials added that the 2G-plus rules were correctly enforced.

“We have implemented all applicable requirements since September and have done our best to prevent a situation like this,” club manager Joey Claussen said in the news release. “But we always knew that there is no such thing as 100 percent security. And now we have to try together to prevent greater damage,” Claussen added.

Claussen informed 622 visitors with online tickets by email on Wednesday. Around 200 other guests bought their tickets at the box office. To locate these guests, the disco manager is asking the 622 contacted guests for help.

Organizers of the 2022 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship have abruptly canceled the ongoing men’s hockey tournament due the spread of Covid-19 within the teams participating.

The tournament was being held in Alberta, Canada.

“The sportive integrity of the event has been compromised,” IIHF stated, blaming the spread of the Omicron variant in an announcement made on Wednesday.

The IIHF said a member of the Russian national team tested positive for Covid-19, which forced the team into mandated quarantine. Positive tests and subsequent quarantines had already forced organizers to cancel two previously planned preliminary games – Switzerland vs. Team USA and Finland vs. Czechia (Czech Republic).

On Tuesday, Team USA was forced to forfeit their game against Switzerland following two positive Covid-19 tests within the US team.

“We owed it to the participating teams to do our best to create the conditions necessary for this event to work,” said IIHF President Luc Tardif. “Unfortunately, this was not enough. We now have to take some time and focus on getting all players and team staff back home safely.”

Hockey Canada President Scott Smith and CEO Tom Renney said, “Although we know this is the right decision, we sympathize with all participants who have earned the opportunity to represent their countries on the world stage and that will not be able to realize that dream in its entirety.”

The US men’s junior team were the defending World Junior Championship gold medal winners. 

Studies have shown that an N95 mask offers better protection from the coronavirus than a cloth mask, even with the more contagious Omicron variant in circulation, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not changed its guidelines about masking because the agency doesn’t think it’s practical, said Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“The CDC is concerned that people just wear a mask, any mask. There are so many people who just don’t want to wear a mask that if we can get anybody to wear a mask, that’s a big plus,” Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday.

The best masks are N95s, Fauci said, but people are less likely to use them because they aren’t comfortable, particularly if worn for any length of time, he explained.

“It is not the easiest thing to wear, so the decision was made by the part of the people at the CDC. We would rather have people wear a mask than have to worry about people not wearing a mask because it’s uncomfortable,” he said.

The CDC has changed its guidelines for people who have tested positive for Covid-19 but don’t have symptoms, saying they should isolate themselves for five days and then wear a mask for five more days when around other people. Fauci said that change is meant to strike a balance when addressing an “almost overwhelming surge” of new cases that will probably get worse in the next two weeks.

“So you either shut down the society, which no one wants to do, or you try and get a situation where you can safely get people back particularly to critical jobs without having them be out for a full 10 days, so long as they are without symptoms,” Fauci said.

In this pandemic, every public health decision is made to reduce risk, he said, but risk is relative.

“I think what people need to understand: There is risk in everything when it comes to SARS-CoV-2. That’s just the reality. Some people think if you do this, there is no risk. There’s a risk to everything,” Fauci said.

Spain reported 100,760 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, the first time since the pandemic began that it has surpassed 100,000 cases in a single day, the country’s health ministry reported. 

Wednesday’s figure also set a record for the second consecutive day of the highest number of new cases in a 24-hour reporting period. Tuesday’s figure of 99,671 new cases was double the previous record, which was set just last week, on Dec. 21, the ministry reported.  

Spanish officials have said the rapidly-spreading Omicron variant is to blame for the spikes in cases. 

Spain’s infection rate on Wednesday of 1,508 cases per 100,000 population, over 14 days, was up from 1,360 cases per 100,000 reported on Tuesday. 

Officials said the heavy caseload is especially putting extra pressure on the public neighborhood health clinics, but not as much on the hospitals as earlier in the pandemic. Covid-19 cases now occupy 19.1 percent of intensive care beds in Spanish hospitals, up from 18.7 percent in Tuesday’s report. 

US pediatric hospital admissions for Covid-19 are only 2.2% lower than their peak in early September, continuing a rapid increase since mid-December. 

On average, 334 children have been admitted to the hospital with Covid-19 on any given day over the week that ended Dec. 27, according to data published Wednesday from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Department of Health and Human Services.

This is a more than 58% increase from the previous week and just 2.2% lower than the peak average of 342 children admitted to the hospital at the end of August and in early September.

Nearly 76,000 children up to age 17 have been hospitalized with Covid-19 since August 2020. They make up the lowest number of Covid-19 hospitalizations of all age groups, but hospitalizations in this population are rapidly increasing.

Currently, 0.46 children are hospitalized with Covid-19 for every 100,000 children in the United States. This is up from 0.26 two weeks earlier and near the record of 0.47 hospitalized children that was set Sept. 2.

Pediatric hospital admissions are up more than 50% in the past week in HHS regions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8, which includes the East Coast and parts of the Midwest. Only region 7, in the central Midwest, saw hospital admissions decline compared with the previous week.

New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul said that they are preparing for a Covid-19 surge in January as the state reports a new record high of 67,000 positive cases on Tuesday and a steady increase in hospitalizations over the last week. 

Hochul announced the large amount of new positive cases during a news conference Wednesday afternoon, but gave the context that this was from approximately 362,000 total tests.

She also announced 6,700 Covid-19-related hospitalizations were reported on Tuesday, which is up about 10% from the 6,173 hospitalizations reported on Monday. The state’s daily percent positivity is currently at 18.5% while the seven-day average is 14.61%, a release from Hochul’s office said. 

Hochul said that hospitalizations are down from the same time last year, but are still an “area of concern.” Despite this, only 25 hospitals have had to suspend elective procedures, and the National Guard is helping fill in staffing gaps, she said.

The governor also announced $78 million in federal funding to help protect vulnerable communities with Covid-19. Local governments and non-profits can apply for grants to get added protection in areas of their community, like farmworkers or at a senior citizen center. 

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced today that he has authorized the deployment of 200 National Guard troops to assist as Covid-19 cases increase statewide.

In a news conference Wednesday, Kemp said that the troops will assist at testing sites and hospitals and mobilization will start next week. Close to 100 will support the Department of Public Health while the rest will be deployed to hospitals. 

He said today that he will not implement measures to close businesses. He also said that there will be no new policies implemented to “divide the vaccinated from the unvaccinated or the masked from the unmasked.”

Kemp also said that $100 million will be put towards health care staff augmentation throughout the state which would mean an additional 1,000 personnel. This will further support the medical community, he said. 

The governor also announced that he is fully vaccinated and boosted.

Dr. Allison Arwady, Chicago department of public health commissioner, said Covid-19 cases in the city are significantly higher than they’ve ever been during the pandemic.

Arwardy said hospital bed capacity is a concern, with non-ICU hospital beds occupied by Covid-19 patients at the highest level since December 2020.

While there have been some Covid-19 cases in vaccinated and boosted people, “by far the biggest risk for infection remains among people who are unvaccinated,” Arwady said.

Vaccinated people may be more likely to develop a breakthrough coronavirus infection with the Omicron variant than with Delta, but vaccines still keep most people out of the hospital, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday.

“What I can tell you is that compared to people who are boosted, if you are unvaccinated, you are 10 times more likely to be a case and 20 times more likely to be a fatality. Compared to people who are (vaccinated), you are 17 times more likely to be in the hospital,” Walensky said at a White House Covid-19 briefing. 

“So our vaccines are working really well to prevent severe disease and hospitalization and death. They’re actually also working quite well to prevent cases, although we do know more breakthrough cases are happening in the context of Omicron,” she added.

And it’s too soon to consider asking people who are boosted to get another dose, said Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“Before we start talking about a fourth shot, it will be very important for us to determine the durability of protection, particularly against severe disease for the third shot booster of an mRNA and the second shot of a J&J. Right now, we don’t have that information,” Fauci, who is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at the briefing.

“It is conceivable that in the future, we might need an additional shot, but right now, we are hoping that we will get a greater degree of durability of protection from that booster shot,” Fauci added. “So we’re going to take one step at a time, get the data from the third boost and then make decisions based on the scientific data.”

An ensemble forecast from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Wednesday predicts that more than 44,000 people could die of Covid-19 in the next four weeks. 

By comparison, the US typically sees between 12,000 and 52,000 deaths from flu over an average year.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the coronavirus has killed at least 821,251 people in the United States. The CDC forecast estimates that number could rise to 866,000 deaths reported by Jan. 22.  

The forecast could mean an average of up to 1,800 Covid-19 deaths per day, up from a current average of 1,523 each day, according to JHU data. 

The CDC included projections indicating that the quickest rise in deaths may happen in early January, with the average slowing after Jan. 22. 

Hospitalizations are predicted to increase for the sixth straight week, with 11,400 to 28,800 new confirmed Covid-19 hospital admissions reported on Jan. 21.

According to US Department of Health and Human Services data, there were 76,779 people hospitalized with Covid-19 on Dec. 28. 

The forecast for cases did not predict an increase or decrease. The CDC has not included this information for many months. But this week, for the first time, it also did not give a predicted number of cases.

“Recent case forecasts have shown low reliability, with more reported cases than expected falling outside the forecast prediction intervals for 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-week ahead case forecasts. Therefore, case forecasts will continue to be collected and analyzed but will not be summarized until sustained improvements in performance are observed,” the CDC said. 

New Jersey has reported more than 20,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, which is almost double the over 11,000 cases reported on Monday and a new record.

Tuesday’s confirmed case count of 20,483 is the highest of the pandemic, beating out the previous high of 16,626 confirmed cases on Dec. 25, according to state data. The state’s rate of transmission currently sits at 1.76. 

In addition to Tuesday’s confirmed cases, the state also reported 6,590 probable cases through antigen testing. 

A little under 3,300 people were reported hospitalized Tuesday, which is about 10% higher than Monday.

Indications are building that while the Omicron variant of coronavirus is very contagious, it may cause a milder course of disease than Delta does, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday. 

“We know now, incontrovertibly, that this is a highly, highly transmissible virus. We know that from the numbers we’re seeing,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a White House Covid-19 briefing.

“And clearly, there is a degree of immune evasion, particularly against infection and, to some degree, against hospitalization,” he added.

Omicron can infect vaccinated people, though not as easily as it infects unvaccinated people, and certain monoclonal antibody treatments do not help against it.

“However, importantly, and the bottom line message here, is that boosters bring back up that degree of protection to a level that is approximately what it was before. So boosters are critical in getting our approach to Omicron to be optimal,” Fauci said.

Several studies from South Africa and the UK, as well as lab studies in animals, indicate that the Omicron variant may cause less severe disease, Fauci said. In Britain, the risk of hospitalization admission for Omicron was 40% that of the risk seen with Delta.

“In the United States, we are getting an accumulation of data,” Fauci added. “The spike in cases is out of proportion to the increase in hospitalization.”

He said that over 14 days in December, the US racked up a 126% increase in the number of cases but just an 11% increase in hospitalizations.

“Now, we must remember that hospitalizations and deaths are lagging indicators,” Fauci noted. “However, the pattern and disparity between cases and hospitalizations strongly suggest that there will be a lower hospitalization-to-case ratio when the situation becomes more clear. 

“So in conclusion, the data are encouraging but still in many respects preliminary,” Fauci noted. “But having said this, all indications point to a lesser severity of Omicron versus Delta. It is difficult to determine what degree of lessened severity is due to pre-existing immunity or the intrinsically lower virulence of Omicron — as suggested by the animal studies — or a combination of both.”

And the sheer numbers could still mean that, even with lower hospitalization rates for Omicron, the number of people infected could add up to more people in the hospital and a strain on the nation’s health care system, Fauci noted.

Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Wednesday that all public school students and staff will be required to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test result before returning from winter break Jan. 5.

Previously, Bowser had recommended tests for those returning to the classroom. 

Bowser said the city will likely need to transition to “situational learning throughout the semester, especially in the coming weeks,” but added that “decisions about specific classrooms and grade levels within a school will be made on a case-by-case basis,” based on staff availability and the percentage of students and staff in quarantine. 

On Wednesday, the United Kingdom registered 183,037 new cases of Covid-19, a new record of daily infections, according to government data.

In the last seven days, the UK registered more than 900,000 new cases — a more than 41% increase compared to the previous week. 

The death rate remained low, compared to previous waves in the UK, at 0.9 fatalities per 100,000 people. 

There were 57 additional deaths reported Wednesday that were related to Covid-19.

The city of Chicago will implement a vaccine requirement starting Monday, Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Acting Commissioner Ken Meyer announced Wednesday.

“As we’ve seen over the course of this holiday season, Covid-19 cases continued to rise. So in response, on Monday, January 3, the Chicago vaccine requirement will go into effect to slow the spread of Covid-19 and to help us continue our path to recovery,” Meyer said.

Anyone age five and up will be required to show proof of vaccination in order to dine indoors, visit gyms, or go to entertainment venues where food or drinks are being served.

Additionally, anyone over the age of 16 will need to show identification to compare with their vaccination card, Meyer said.

“The vaccine requirement is a collaborative effort that prioritizes the health of Chicagoans. This is a necessary and intentional policy, which in fact has already been placed voluntarily by many establishments in the hospitality and performing arts industry thus far,” Meyer said. “The new order will standardize health protocols across businesses and industries.”

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tried Wednesday to lay out what her agency’s new quarantine and isolation guidelines mean for individual Americans.

The CDC released new guidelines cutting in half the recommendations for how long people should isolate after being infected with Covid-19 and how long they should quarantine if exposed. Walensky tried to clarify these at a White House coronavirus update Wednesday and added simplified definitions.

“Let me walk you through exactly what these new recommendations mean for you. First, isolation refers to what you do when you have Covid-19, most likely diagnosed by a positive test. Isolation prevents those who are known to be infected from transmitting the virus to others,” she said.

“Quarantine, on the other hand, is different. This is what you do when you have been exposed to someone who has disease and are unsure if you yourself were infected. Quarantine prevents further spread of the virus in the time before someone may develop symptoms or from those who are asymptomatic from their infection,” she added.

“If you’re infected with SARS-CoV-2, regardless of your vaccination status, you should isolate for five days. During periods of isolation, it’s best for you to wear a mask around those in your household to avoid spreading the virus at home,” she said. “After five days, if you’re asymptomatic or if your symptoms have largely resolved, you may leave isolation as long as you continue to wear a mask around others, even in the home, for an additional five days.”

Quarantine for people exposed to the virus depends on whether people are fully vaccinated or boosted.

“If you are boosted or have been vaccinated with your Pfizer or Moderna series in the past six months or your J&J shot in the past two months, no quarantine is needed. However, a mask must be worn for 10 days following your known exposure. And we also recommend getting a test on day five after your exposure,” Walensky said.

“If you’re not vaccinated or you were vaccinated with your Pfizer or Moderna series over six months ago or with J&J over two months ago and have not yet received your booster, you should quarantine for five days following your last exposure. After five days, you should continue masking around others for an additional five days, and you should also get a test at day five,” she said.

“If it’s not possible for you to quarantine, it is really important that you do the right thing and wear a mask at all times around others for 10 days after your exposure. Here, we also emphasize that you should get a test at day five. And if at any point you develop symptoms of Covid-19 during your quarantine period for your 10 days after exposure — like fevers, runny nose, a cough, headaches or body aches — you should get a test and isolate until your test results return. And of course, then isolate if your test returns positive.”

The CDC did not include many recommendations for using quick at-home tests because it’s not clear that they tell whether a person is likely to transmit the virus to others, Walensky said.

“On the other hand, we know that after five days, people are much less likely to transmit the virus and that masking further reduces that risk. And this is why people need to mask for five days after their five days of isolation. This science, as well as what we know about the protection provided by masking, vaccination and booster doses and about our testing programs, are all part of what informed our updated recommendations.”

The data shows the Omicron variant now accounts for more than 90% of community Covid-19 cases recorded in England, the UK’s public health agency said in a tweet.

An additional 39,923 cases of the variant were recorded in the UK on Wednesday by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). 

The London region has so far recorded the highest number of Omicron cases in England with a total of 45,245 cases. 

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson played down concerns regarding the threat of the variant during a visit to a vaccination center Wednesday, saying that Omicron is “obviously milder than Delta.” 

Johnson attributed England’s ability to “go ahead with New Year in the cautious way that we are,” to the high uptake of the booster vaccine. 

Italy announced Wednesday that there were at least 98,030 new Covid-19 infections over the past 24 hours, a new daily record for the country.

The number of dead from the virus grew by 136, according to data released by the health ministry.

Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Americans against attending large-scale New Year’s Eve celebrations this year, suggesting that people opt for smaller gatherings with vaccinated and boosted family and friends as the Omicron variant spreads across the country.

“If you were in a situation with a family setting, in your home, with family — parents, children, grandparents — and everyone is vaccinated and boosted, although the risk is never zero in anything, the risk is low enough that we feel you should continue to go through with those plans of having a home-related, vaccinated, boosted gathering with family and close friends who are also vaccinated and boosted,” the President’s top medical adviser told reporters during the White House’s Covid-19 response team briefing Wednesday.

But, Fauci added, “If your plans are to go to a 40-to-50 person New Year’s Eve party with all the bells and whistles and everybody hugging and kissing and wishing each other a Happy New Year? I would strongly recommend that, this year, we do not do that.”

White House Covid-19 Response Director Jeff Zients told CNN’s Jeremey Diamond Wednesday that the administration expects the contract for purchasing 500 million at-home rapid Covid-19 tests “to be completed late next week,” adding that the Departments of Health and Human Services and Defense “are executing on an accelerated contracting timeline” to speed up distribution. 

“That means that the first deliveries from manufacturers will start in January, we’ll set up a free and easy system, including a new website, to get these tests out to Americans,” Zients told Jeremy during Wednesday’s White House Covid-19 Response briefing. “We’re actively working to finalize that distribution mechanism, which includes a website where people will be able to order tests for free, and we’ll share more details in the weeks ahead — days and weeks ahead.”

As CNN reported earlier Wednesday, the inability to secure enough timely tests for the number of people who want them has led to a new reckoning for Biden’s Covid-19 response, while delays in launching the administration’s 500 million test purchase led to major disruptions to holiday travel and frustrations around the availability of testing.

Walking along the seafront in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Biden said on Tuesday that he’d made “a bit of progress” in distributing the new tests. But he didn’t expand on how far along the program was.

Pressed Wednesday on the dearth of available tests, Zients pointed to the administration’s efforts to ease testing shortages through federally-run testing sites in major cities. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci reiterated Wednesday that the idea of a domestic US travel vaccination requirement remains on the table as the Omicron variant spreads across the US, but suggested it was not necessary at this time.

“Everything that is an intervention is always on the table and always discussed, and we discuss it regularly,” Fauci, who is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters during Wednesday’s White House Covid-19 response team briefing.

Fauci explained that an international travel vaccine requirement was made to help prevent infection and new variants from spreading in the US. A domestic travel vaccine requirement, he said, is different.

“Right now, we feel that the masking requirements and the degree of filtration on a plane is sufficient to keep people safe,” he said.

But he left the door open to a future requirement should the situation – and the science – change.

“If there’s a need to do more beyond this masking, namely, having a vaccine issue, we will seriously consider that as new information arises. So it’s just keeping an open mind that the situation may change, but at this particular time, we do not feel that it is necessary to make that a requirement for domestic flights,” Fauci said. 

Fauci had said earlier this week that such a requirement should be “seriously considered.” But President Biden indicated Tuesday he would only make the decision if he got that recommendation from his medical team. Biden’s chief of staff Ron Klain indicated there will not be any change to the current policy before the argument on workplace vaccine mandates goes before the Supreme Court in January.

White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients offered some new details on federal support for Covid-19 testing and treatment across the country during a briefing Wednesday. 

The Biden administration’s Covid-19 response team, Zients said, has been working “hand-in-hand with governors and local health officials across the country to assess and address needs on the ground,” something President Biden reiterated to the nation’s governors earlier this week.

In New York, he said, 60 FEMA medical personnel and 30 ambulances arrived last week to help transport patients to hospitals around the states. FEMA has also established nine federally-run testing sites in New York City, with three more opening Sunday.

In Arizona, 20 FEMA paramedics began providing clinical support starting Dec. 24, with 40 more personnel arriving next week to assist with treatment in Maricopa and Pima counties and tribal communities. 

In Indiana, Zients said, 23 military medical personnel started their mission on Christmas Day at University Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.

In New Mexico, 15 medical personnel from the US Public Health Services Commissioned Corps arrived Monday to provide surge support in Indian country, with 15 ventilators being sent to the state Wednesday and 12 federal personnel arriving next week to assist with vaccinations.

A 23-person military medical team starts supporting Belen Hospital in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Friday.

A federally-run free testing site will open in New Jersey on New Year’s Day, with additional testing sites opening in Philadelphia and Washington, DC, in the “next several days.”

Additionally, he added, 1 million gloves, 342,000 masks, respirators, and face shields, and 40,000 gowns have been shipped to states “in the past couple of weeks alone.”

“We’ve been working around the clock to surge reinforcements to communities as they battle Omicron, helping to staff hospitals, administer monoclonal antibody treatments, transport patients, add testing capacity, and get more PPE to where it is needed, and you’ll see us continue to act aggressively to address the communities’ needs in the days and weeks ahead,” Zients said.

The Spanish government has reduced the quarantine time for people who tested positive for Covid-19 from 10 to seven days, the country’s health ministry said Wednesday. 

The duration of quarantine for unvaccinated people who were in close contact with positive cases is also reduced to seven days, the ministry said in a statement.  

The government has not clarified when the new isolation requirements will be in place. 

Ahead of the announcement, during his traditional end-of-year speech in Madrid, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said this decision would be “very important to many citizens.”

Spain’s Health Minister met with the health department chiefs from the regional governments Wednesday afternoon to discuss details.

The true seven-day incidence rate of Covid-19 infections in Germany is two to three times higher than reported in current statistics, according to Health Minister Karl Lauterbach. 

Because of the holidays, there is currently a “significant under-reporting” of Covid-19 infections, Lauterbach said.

“The incidence currently reported underestimates the danger we are in,” the minister warned, adding that he expects a significant increase in the Omicron variant cases within a few weeks.

Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari has tested positive for coronavirus, his office said in a statement, adding that he is staying in a hospital. 

“President Ahtisaari is doing well under the circumstances, but stays at the hospital for the time being. He tested positive for coronavirus also in March 2020,” his office said.

Ahtisaari, 84, was Finland’s president from 1994 to 2000 and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on CNN’s New Day Wednesday the decision to shorten the isolation period for those with asymptomatic Covid-19 infection was driven by evidence around transmission and what isolation protocol people “would be able to tolerate.”

“We looked at several areas of science here,” Walensky said when asked how the CDC settled on five days of isolation for everyone. “First, the science of how much transmission happens in the period of time after you’re infected. We know that the most amount of transmission occurs in those one to two days before you develop symptoms, those two to three days after you develop symptoms. And if you map that out, those five days account for somewhere between 85 to 90% of all transmission that occurs.”

CDC “really wanted to make sure” that the first five days were spent in isolation, Walensky said, adding that they were asking people to mask in the last five days. 

They also looked at epidemiology, she said, and they are seeing and expecting even more cases of Omicron, many of which were mildly or asymptomatic. 

Finally, they looked at behavioral science, “what will people actually do when people need to get back to work? What is it that they will actually do? And if we can get them to isolate, we do want to make sure that they’re isolating in those first five days when they’re maximally infectious.” 

Asked if the decision had as much to do with business as with science, Walensky said “it really had a lot to do with what we thought people would be able to tolerate.” 

There have been relatively low rates of isolation throughout the pandemic, she said, adding “some science has demonstrated less than a third of people are isolating when they need to.” 

“We really want to make sure that we had guidance in this moment where we were going to have a lot of disease that could be adhered to, that people were willing to adhere to. And that spoke specifically to when people were maximally infectious. So it really spoke to both behaviors as well as what people were able to do,” she said.

Walensky also said that the old 10 day guidance was “conservative,” when asked why they didn’t make the change sooner. 

“But, in the context of the fact that we were going to have so many more cases, many of those would be asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, people would feel well enough to be at work, they would not necessarily tolerate being home and that they may not comply with being home,” she said. “This was the moment that we needed to make that decision and those changes.”

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, advised people who may have coronavirus symptoms to get a PCR test if they get a negative antigen test.

“We do know that the most sensitive test that you can do is a PCR test, so if you have symptoms and you have a negative antigen test, then we do ask you to go and get a PCR to make sure that those symptoms are not attributable to Covid,” she said on ABC’s Good Morning America Wednesday.

“Antigen tests still work quite well, and they work well especially in places that we’re using them, like in higher education, in test to stay in schools where we’re doing several tests, one every other day, every third day, and that’s really when they work well as well. So, we still are encouraging their use, they may not work as well as they had for the Delta variant,” Walensky continued.

On Monday, the CDC shortened the recommended times that people should isolate when they’ve tested positive for Covid-19 from 10 days to five days if they don’t have symptoms – and if they wear a mask around others for at least five more days.

The CDC also shortened the recommended time for people to quarantine if they are exposed to the virus to a similar five days if they are vaccinated. People who are fully vaccinated and boosted may not need to quarantine at all, the CDC said.

Walensky reiterated the agency’s stance that kids “can safely return to school” as long as they are testing for Covid-19 regularly.

“Our recommendations are true for both adults and for children. We do have really clear science now on a test to stay strategy, that if children are exposed, they can safely return to school, as long as they’re getting a test every day, every other day, every third day. And we’ve demonstrated over the last month, new science that demonstrates that’s a very safe way to keep our children in school and that’s really our goal. Of course, the most important thing we can do to keep our children safe is to get them vaccinated,” Walensky said.

Greece is bringing forward restrictions that were due to take effect on Jan. 3 in an effort to curb the spread of the Omicron variant which has become dominant across the country.

Greece registered 21,657 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday – its highest daily record since the start of the pandemic.

Health Minister Thanos Plevris announced in a news conference that the new restrictions will instead take effect tomorrow at 6 a.m. local.

The measures include the closure of hospitality and entertainment venues at midnight, a ban on standing customers and a maximum limit of six people per table, reduced sports venue capacity and the reintroduction of 50% remote working for public and private sectors.

Plevris added that music will also be banned in entertainment venues. 

Omicron variant cases are doubling every two to three days, French Health Minister Olivier Veran told a parliamentary health commission in Paris Wednesday.

Veran also told French lawmakers that his European colleagues are also seeing a similar trend.

To curb the spread of Omicron, the French government will require a vaccine pass that will to come into force from Jan. 15 in restaurants as well as in some of the country’s public transportation and proof of vaccination will be required.

Hospitals and elderly care homes will just be governed by the current health pass.

Earlier, the French health minister said France has seen 208,000 cases in the last 24 hours. Every second more than two French people test positive, he noted.

“Delta has not had its final word,” he said.

The official said about the unvaccinated, there was “very little chance this time you’ll be able to slip through the net,” when it comes to getting infected.

He said at least one million people were infected at this point.

CNN readers from around the world have asked more than 150,000 questions (and counting) about coronavirus. One of those questions was if people who have previously had Covid-19 can still get infected with the Omicron variant. The answer is yes.

In fact, the first confirmed Omicron-related death in the US was a man who previously had Covid-19.

The Texas man, in his 50s, had not been vaccinated, Harris County health officials said.

For months, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said vaccines give stronger protection against Covid-19 than previous infection alone.

“If you have had Covid-19 before, please still get vaccinated,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in August, citing research published during a Delta variant surge. “This study shows you are twice as likely to get infected again if you are unvaccinated.”

With the new Omicron variant, the risk of getting reinfected is 5.4 times higher with Omicron than it was with Delta, according to a team of disease modelers at Imperial College London.

“This suggests relatively low remaining levels of immunity from prior infection,” the team wrote in a December report.

Health experts say the best way to help protect against the Omicron variant is to get vaccinated and boosted.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN’s New Day Wednesday that the rapid speed of Omicron spread meant that early predictive estimates about how prevalent it is can be less stable.

The CDC said Tuesday that the Omicron variant caused 58.6% of new coronavirus cases in the US last week, which is lower than previously thought, but the agency has said it will adjust its estimates based on additional sequencing.

“What we do is we take the genomic surveillance data that we have and we do predictive modeling in order to assess and estimate the prevalence of Omicron,” Walensky said on Wednesday, when asked about the revised CDC estimates of how much of the variant is currently in the US. “Of course, early in Omicron, when we have really rapid speed, those predictive estimates can be less stable and that’s what happened in this period of time. So, we have revised our estimates, we’ve done so transparently.” 

“But, I think the important thing to note here is that there are areas of this country that have 20% Omicron, there are areas of this country that have 90% of cases Omicron, and what we have seen and what our predictions have demonstrated is that this is a rapidly increasing variant in the United States,” she said.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated their isolation and quarantine guidelines on Monday for those who test positive with Covid-19.

Here’s what to know:

“Given what we currently know about COVID-19 and the Omicron variant, CDC is shortening the recommended time for isolation from 10 days for people with COVID-19 to 5 days, if asymptomatic, followed by 5 days of wearing a mask when around others,” the CDC said.

The update did not explicitly say how long infected people who still had symptoms need to isolate. The CDC has previously said people with symptomatic Covid-19 should isolate for 10 days.

“To calculate your 10 full day isolation period, day 0 is your first day of symptoms,” the CDC said Dec. 9. “Day 1 is the first full day after your symptoms developed.”

The decision to reduce isolation times for those who are asymptomatic after five days was motivated by research showing the majority of Covid-19 spread “occurs early in the course of illness, generally in the 1-2 days prior to onset of symptoms and the 2-3 days after,” the CDC said on Dec. 27.

“Therefore, people who test positive should isolate for 5 days and, if asymptomatic at that time, they may leave isolation if they can continue to mask for 5 days to minimize the risk of infecting others.”

Have more coronavirus questions? We’re answering them here.

The US hit a seven-day average of 265,427 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, blowing past the country’s previous record of about 252,000 daily cases, reported nearly a year ago on Jan. 11.

The new peak, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, comes as rapid acceleration of infections continues in the United States.

Here’s a look at how Covid-19 is spreading in communities across the country:

Track Covid-19 cases in the US here.

CNN’s Holly Yan and Amir Vera contributed reporting to this post. 

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky explained the agency’s stance on rapid tests on CNN’s New Day Wednesday. Walensky said the CDC does not recommend rapid tests for ending Covid-19 isolation because they don’t know how they perform or predict how transmissible people are at the end of infection. 

“We do, just to be clear, recommend having a rapid test during your period of quarantine after you’ve been exposed,” Walensky said when asked why the CDC didn’t recommend taking a rapid test after the five days of isolation. “We opted not to have the rapid test for isolation because we actually don’t know how our rapid tests perform and how well they predict whether you’re transmissible during the end of disease.” 

The US Food and Drug Administration has not authorized them for that use, she said, and it is not known how they perform. 

“So what we said was, well, if you got a rapid test at five days and it was negative, we weren’t convinced that you weren’t still transmissible,” she said. “We didn’t want to leave a false sense of security, we still wanted you to wear the mask. And if it was positive, we still know the maximum amount of transmission was behind you, we still wanted you to wear a mask and given that we were not going to change our recommendations based on the result of that rapid test, we opted not to include it.” 

Asked why health care workers need a negative test just a few days ago, according to CDC guidance, but the general public doesn’t, Walensky said that infection control recommendations in health care workplaces are “always more stringent” than for the general population. 

She also said that the decision had nothing to do with shortages of rapid tests, saying “this decision really from an isolation standpoint had everything to do with the fact that we wouldn’t change our guidance based on the result of that rapid test. And you know that it didn’t have anything to do with any shortage at all, because we recommend rapid tests for those in quarantine.” 

You can read more about the CDC’s updated isolation guidelines here.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on CNN’s New Day Wednesday that she hopes for coronavirus vaccine boosters for 12- to 15-years-olds in the days to weeks ahead, but vaccines for children younger than 5 will take longer.

“The FDA is currently looking at the issue of booster shots for those 12 to 15, and I know that the companies and manufacturers are working towards data for children under five. That will not be in the month ahead, but we’re working hard to get there soon,” she said.

Asked about the timeline for boosters for younger people, Walensky said “the FDA is looking at that right now. Of course, the CDC will swiftly follow as soon as we hear from them and I’m hoping to have that in, you know, the days to weeks ahead.” 

After the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance this week that shortens its recommended isolation period from 10 to five days for people who have tested positive for Covid-19 but don’t have symptoms, experts are split.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky defended the changes, saying she is “seeing and expecting even more cases of this Omicron variant” and that was a factor in the agency’s decision-making.

“Our guidance was conservative before. It had said 10 days of isolation. But in the context of the fact that we were going to have so many more cases, many of those would be asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, people would feel well enough to be at work. They would not necessarily tolerate being home and they may not comply with being home,” she told CNN this morning.

The CDC also looked at the data around transmission, Walensky added.

“We know that the most amount of transmission occurs in the one to two days before you develop symptoms, those two to three days after you develop symptoms. If you map that out, those five days account for somewhere between 85% to 90% of all transmission that occurs. We really wanted to make sure that … the first five days were spent in isolation,” she said. “Of course there is this tail end period of time in the last five days where we are asking you to mask.”

Watch:

The decision of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to shorten recommended times for people to isolate after testing positive for Covid-19 has raised eyebrows.

Erin Bromage, professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, said he was concerned about isolation periods being cut from 10 days to five if a Covid-19 positive person does not have symptoms. Speaking to New Day, Bromage said there was no data to support it.

There is absolutely no data that I’m aware about with the Omicron variant that supports people coming out of isolation five days after they were first diagnosed with the virus. My own work shows that when we look at people five, seven, eight days after they were first tested positive or first symptoms, they still have enough virus in their nose, in the back of their throat to be able to come up positive on these antigen tests and antigen tests are very good proxy for live virus and the ability to be able to infect others. So it seems that they’ve made a decision without the data to actually support this change,” he said.

The new CDC guidance does not require a negative test at the end of the isolation period, a move which Bromage said seems to be born from the “fact that it’s really hard to get your hands on tests.”

He said tests are a good way to reduce anxiety in workplaces, especially in roles where people are unable to socially distance themselves.

“I can tell you with people that work in very, very close proximity to each other, where masks are not worn regularly because of the job function when … you’re returning them to work after being infected and after sickness, the people that are working around them want to know that they’re not going to get infected by that person,” he said.

The lack of a testing requirement “just seems to be adding risk and anxiety that we don’t really need,” he said.

While Austria has mandated vaccinations from February 2022, figures from the country’s health ministry show that its vaccination rate is rising, but only slowly.

Government data shows 71% of the Austrian population is now fully vaccinated. CNN reported on November 22 that just under 66% were completely vaccinated – one of the lower rates in the European Union at the time as cases surged. 

During the Christmas period, vaccination dropped off significantly, the ministry said, with 61% fewer shots – or 252,396 doses – being administered in the last seven days compared to the week before. 

And the majority of the vaccinations are boosters, the ministry added. On December 28, 51,864 doses were administered. Of those, 30,088 were boosters, 16,253 were second shots and only 5,523 were first vaccinations.

Spanish health authorities are expected to make a decision later Wednesday on whether to reduce the number of days in quarantine for Covid-positive cases.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, making his traditional end-of-year-speech in Madrid, said this decision was “very important to many citizens.”

The country’s health ministry reported 99,671 new cases on Tuesday, the highest number in a single day since the start of the pandemic.

Global cases of Covid-19 increased 11% during the week of December 20 to 26 compared to the previous week, while death numbers remained similar, according to the weekly epidemiological update from the World Health Organization (WHO), published Tuesday. 

This growth in cases follows “a gradual increase since October,” WHO says, with just under 5 million cases reported. Overall, as of December 26, there have been over 278 million cases reported. 

The Americas region reported the largest new case increase, of 39%, followed by the African region, with a 7% increase. The European, Eastern Mediterranean, and Western Pacific regions all reported similar case numbers to the week before. The South-East Asia Region reported a decrease of 12% compared to the week before. 

The United States reported the highest number of new cases, followed by the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Germany. 

The number of deaths, over 44,000 in the past week, was similar to the number of deaths the week before. There have been just over 5.4 million deaths reported globally, as of December 26.

The highest number of new deaths was reported in the African region, a 72% increase from the week before. It is followed by the South-East Asia region, with a 9% increase, and the Americas region, 7%. The Western Pacific region had a number similar to the week before. There was a 12% decrease in deaths in the European region and a 7% decrease in deaths in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

Looking at the Omicron variant, WHO says that “the overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high.” 

It also notes consistent evidence showing the growth advantage of Omicron over Delta, the two to three days doubling time and “rapid increases in the incidence of cases is seen in a number of countries, including those where the variant has become the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant, such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America.”

WHO notes there has been a decline in cases in South Africa, where the variant was first identified.

It also says that although early data suggests a reduced risk of hospitalization, more data is needed to understand the clinical markers of severity and how severity may be impacted by previous infection and vaccination.

For tests, WHO says preliminary data suggests that PCR and antigen-based rapid tests do not appear to be impacted by Omicron. For treatments, it says that corticosteroids and interleukin 6 receptor blockers are expected to remain effective, however, monoclonal antibodies may be less able to neutralize Omicron. 

More than 2,000 flights have been canceled globally on Wednesday so far as the Omicron surge continues to disrupt travel.

According to the tracking website FlightAware, 2,221 flights have been canceled as of 5 a.m. ET Wednesday with 721 of them flying within, into, or out of the United States. Nearly 3,000 flights have been delayed.

Globally, airlines have canceled thousands of flights over the holiday period as staff and crew call in sick. More than 6,000 flights on Christmas Eve, Christmas, and the day after Christmas were canceled.

In the US, more than 1,200 flights were canceled and more than 5,000 were delayed on Sunday alone. More than 3,000 flights were canceled on Monday, with a similar amount stopped on Tuesday as well, according to FlightAware.

The United States and a number of European countries smashed their Covid-19 case records Tuesday as the highly-transmissible Omicron variant spreads across the world.

The US: The nation reached a seven-day average of 254,496 new cases on Tuesday – the highest this number has ever been over the course of the pandemic – according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The figure beat the previous record of 251,989 new infections, set on January 11, 2021. Hospitalizations and deaths have not seen a similar increase in pace but these are lagging indicators that may drag weeks behind case increases.

Nationwide pediatric Covid-19 hospitalizations are nearing the record high set in September, however. On average, roughly 305 children were admitted to the hospital with Covid-19 on any given day over the week that ended December 26, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Department of Health and Human Services.

France: Authorities reported a record high of 179,807 new confirmed cases in a 24-hour period on Tuesday. Despite a rise in hospitalizations and ICU occupancy, French data is showing fewer deaths. In the last 24 hours, France recorded 290 Covid-19 related deaths, 484 people hospitalized and 83 people in ICU beds. A year ago, the country recorded 363 deaths, 25 hospitalizations and 44 people in intensive care.

United Kingdom: On Tuesday, the country again broke its Covid-19 case records with 129,471 new infections, according to official data. Covid-19 hospitalizations in England have risen by 25% over the course of one week but the government has said there will be no further restrictions there before the new year.

On Wednesday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the Omicron variant is milder than the Delta strain but “continues to cause real problems,” and urged the public to get vaccinated or boosted if eligible to avoid hospitalizations.

Spain: The country’s health ministry reported 99,671 new cases on Tuesday, the highest number in a single day since the start of the pandemic. It’s double the previous record, set just last week.

Italy: Italy is also reporting its highest daily new cases since the start of the pandemic, with 78,313 infections recorded Tuesday. It also has lower figures in hospitalizations and deaths when compared with data from 2020. In the same period last year, Italy recorded 8,585 new infections, 445 Covid-19 related deaths, and 2,565 intensive care beds occupied. On Tuesday it reported 202 deaths, and 1,145 ICU occupancy.

Portugal: Portugal has also recorded its highest-ever number of new daily cases, with a total of 17,172 new coronavirus infections, its health ministry said Tuesday.  

Despite rising cases, authorities have seen a 70% reduction in the number of deaths, hospitalizations, and ICU admissions over the Christmas period compared to the previous year. Between December 20 to 27, 2021, there have been 14 deaths and 151 ICU admissions, according to health authority data. There were 68 deaths and 506 ICU admissions in the same period in 2020.

Mainland China reported 152 locally transmitted Covid-19 infections on Wednesday, including 151 reported from the city of Xi’an in the northwestern Shaanxi province, health authorities announced Wednesday.

Since December 9, Shaanxi Province has reported a total of 982 locally transmitted cases, of which 962 were confirmed from the capital city Xi’an.

Wednesday marked the sixth day of lockdown for the city’s 13 million residents that started last Thursday. It is China’s largest lockdown since the restrictions in Wuhan, which sealed off 11 million people in 2020.

New rules: Public venues and transportation have been closed except for essential services like supermarkets and hospitals. Travel to and from the city is suspended except for special circumstances requiring official approval.

Before Monday, only one member of each household was allowed to leave to buy groceries and other necessities every other day. The city tightened measures to the highest level on Monday as cases continued to rise, banning all residents from leaving home unless permitted for mass testing. Groceries are instead supposed to be delivered to people’s doors. 

Under the current policy, people in communities that don’t have cases or close contacts of cases can only have one person per household leave their home for groceries every other day. This can only happen after the entire community tests negative for Covid-19 in the latest round of mass testing that started Wednesday.

Users on the Chinese social media site Weibo have complained they can’t get enough food since the government tightened measures. Over 52,000 posts were published on Weibo with the hashtag “Difficult to buy groceries in Xi’an,” which has got more than 260 million views.

“The night before lockdown, we laughed at the citizens who went to the supermarket panic buying. The municipal government said that the food supply was sufficient. As a result, we found we were really stupid and believed this kind of nonsense,” another Weibo user said.

As a result of the backlash, some districts in Xi’an have stepped up efforts to provide basic necessities, Chinese media People’s Daily reported.

Read more here

Mandatory Credit: Photo by CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA/Shutterstock (12658973f) (211225) - XI'AN, Dec. 25, 2021 (Xinhua) - Staff members disinfect packed vegetables at a residential area under quarantine in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Dec. 25, 2021. Xi'an initiated closed-off management for communities and villages on Thursday in an effort to curb the spread of the latest COVID-19 resurgence. More than 3,000 nucleic acid testing sites in Xi'an are working to provide services for residents in communities and on roadsides. Tens of thousands of frontline workers and volunteers are working against the clock to contain the virus. To swiftly contain the spread of the virus, local authorities have rolled out urgent measures while ensuring the city's residents have access to daily necessities. China Shaanxi xi'an Covid 19 Prevention and Control - 25 Dec 2021

Related article China tightens Xi'an lockdown as city reports highest daily Covid-19 cases in nearly 2 years

Hong Kong authorities conducted compulsory Covid-19 testing in two neighborhoods on Tuesday after they identified two coronavirus cases, according to a government news release.

Residents at a building in Tuen Mun district and in Discovery Bay on Lantau Island were forced to remain under lockdown overnight as authorities carried out tests, the release said.

A 46-year-old air crew member living in Discovery Bay was confirmed to have the virus and a 44-year-old crew member who lives in Tuen Mun tested preliminary positive on Tuesday, according to the government. Preliminary positive cases require further testing.

Both air crew returned to Hong Kong from the United States on Christmas Day, the release said.

Authorities finished the testing order on Wednesday morning, the release said. No further cases have been found so far, public broadcaster RTHK reported, citing health officials.

Strict measures: Hong Kong, along with mainland China, is one of the last places in Asia to maintain a zero-Covid strategy. 

Its strict anti-epidemic measures include a border largely sealed to non-residents, lengthy quarantine for almost all arrivals, limits on public gatherings and mandatory mask-wearing.

When a suspected cases arises, contacts are traced and often entire buildings are locked down for mandatory testing. In some cases, close contacts are ordered to undergo quarantine at a government facility.  

Hong Kong, which has a population of more than 7 million, has reported 12,605 Covid-19 cases and 213 related deaths, according to the government.

China recorded 197 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, the National Health Commission (NHC) said, as the nation battles an outbreak in the city of Xi’an that forced its 13 million residents into a strict lockdown last week.

Of the new cases, 152 are locally transmitted and 45 imported, according to the NHC. 

All but one of the locally transmitted cases were reported in Xi’an in the northwest Shaanxi province, the NHC said. One case was reported in the eastern province of Jiangsu, it added. 

Since December 9, Shaanxi province has reported a total of 982 local cases, of which 962 were found in Xi’an, 10 in Xianyang, nine in Yan’an, and one in Weinan.

Authorities in Xi’an further tightened lockdown measures and rolled out the fifth round of mass testing on Monday, in line with China’s rigid zero-Covid strategy. All residents must stay at home unless permitted to go outside for mass testing. Previously, each household was allowed to send one designated person out to buy groceries every two days.

China has reported a total of 101,683 Covid-19 cases and 4,636 deaths, according to state-run People’s Daily.

India’s drugs controller-general granted emergency use authorization for Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine, the company said in a statement Tuesday.

The vaccine will be manufactured locally by the Serum Institute of India under the name Covovax, the statement said.

It does not need any kind of special refrigeration and can be stored and transported using the current vaccine supply chain, the statement said. It should help in areas that are hard to reach, it added.

“No one is safe until everyone is safe, and today’s authorization marks a vital step for India, where additional vaccine options and millions of doses are needed in the country’s ongoing efforts to control the pandemic,” said Stanley C. Erck, president and CEO of Novavax.

The vaccine is in use in other countries, including Indonesia and the Philippines, according to the company. Novavax will submit its data for authorization of its Covid-19 vaccine in the United States by the end of the year.

Indonesia has recorded its first locally transmitted case of the Omicron coronavirus variant, state news media Antara reported Tuesday.

“The Omicron case from local transmission was reported in a man, with no history of foreign travel nor having come in contact with foreign travelers,” Siti Nadia Tarmizi, the director of prevention and control of vector and zoonotic diseases at the Health Ministry, said in a virtual news conference in Jakarta, according to Antara’s report.

The 37 year-old man had traveled from Medan and arrived in Jakarta on December 6. Two weeks later, when he was going back to Medan, his antigen test came back positive, Tarmizi said.

The PCR test a day later also came back positive.

“On December 26, 2021, based on laboratory results, it was confirmed that the patient was exposed to the Omicron variant”, Siti Nadia Tarmizi said, adding the infected man is asymptomatic and currently isolated. 

Contact tracing is ongoing and his wife who accompanied him in his travels, has tested negative for Covid-19, Tarmizi added.

Indonesia reported its first case of the Omicron variant on December 16.

Since then the government says it has upped security at the country’s borders, urged people not to travel abroad and expedited vaccination to meet the national target, Antara’s report said.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday released new isolation and quarantine guidelines for people infected with or exposed to Covid-19.

Important to note: These are guidelines, not mandates, but many industry groups and organizations use them to set their own policies. While these guidelines offer more detail, the old adage applies: If you feel sick, stay home.

Here is a list of basic things to know:

For people who test positive for Covid-19:

For people exposed to Covid-19:

These are based on what studies show about how and when people are likely to infect others.

If you are boosted, have received your first two Pfizer or Moderna doses in the past six months or your single J&J dose in the past two months: 

If you are unvaccinated, or are eligible for a booster and haven’t received one: 

Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales (NSW), reported a near doubling of its daily Covid-19 case tally Wednesday with 11,201 new infections — up from 6,602 the previous day.

Most of the cases were found in state capital Sydney. 

Three new deaths were also announced by NSW Health in its Wednesday statement.

“There are currently 625 COVID-19 cases admitted to hospital, with 61 people in intensive care, 23 of whom require ventilation,” NSW Health said.

Speaking to Sydney radio station 2GB Tuesday NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet defended his decision to relax restrictions earlier this month, including reintroducing broad freedoms for unvaccinated people.

“We’ve always said as we open up, case numbers will increase,” Perrottet said. “These are the difficulties we’ll go through.”

“I think NSW, despite this, is in a very strong position, and I’m very confident about 2022,” Perrottet added.

Cruise ships with Covid-19 positive passengers will be allowed to disembark in Mexico and the country will provide them with medical assistance, according to a news release Tuesday from the Mexican government. 

“In accordance with the biosafety protocols established in the national and international spheres, the Government of Mexico will receive in its maritime ports cruise ships that request to dock in our country,” the statement said. 

“The Secretaries of Health and Tourism of the Government of Mexico reiterate the commitment to respect the provisions of the International Health Regulations of the World Health Organization (WHO), for which cruises will be received in ports maritime of the country,” the statement continued.

Mexico has no testing requirement for entry into the country. “People who do not present symptoms will be able to carry out their tourist activities with respect to the basic prevention measures,” the release said.