Australian state hits another daily Covid-19 record

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is “making good progress” as he continues treatment for Covid-19, the presidency said in a statement on Friday.

“The President is in good spirits and comfortable in his recovery,” the statement read. Ramaphosa tested positive for Covid-19 on December 12 and was exhibiting mild symptoms.

The South African presidency called on citizens to get vaccinated, wear masks, wash their hands frequently and adhere to social distancing rules.

“This will help save lives, reduce the need for hospital admissions, allow businesses to remain open and enable people to work and earn an income,” the presidency said.

European Union member states have agreed to order over 180 million doses of a Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine adapted to protect against the Omicron variant.

“Member states have agreed to trigger a first tranche of over 180 million extra doses of adapted vaccines, in our third contract with BioNTech Group and Pfizer,” head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday.

The head of the European Commission stressed that “Omicron is really threatening us,” while “spreading at a ferocious pace.” She said that the “answer can only be to increase vaccination,” along with other protective measures to fight the pandemic.

Von der Leyen predicts that “companies will develop adapted vaccines, if requested, within 100 days.”

The office of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has denied reports that he attended a pizza party at Downing Street during the UK’s first lockdown, dismissing the gathering as a “series of meetings.”

The reports come amid growing controversy over claims that a number of social events were held inside 10 Downing Street during the 2020 lockdowns, in violation of strict Covid-19 restrictions.

The scandal has also limited the government’s ability to roll out new rules to tackle the Omicron variant, with opponents of the measures accusing the government of employing double standards.

“On 15 May 2020, the Prime Minister held a series of meetings throughout the afternoon, including briefly with the then Health and Care Secretary [Matt Hancock] and his team in the garden following a press conference,” a Downing Street spokesperson told CNN when asked about reports that Johnson had spent 15 minutes with staff who shared pizza and drank wine at Downing Street offices and garden until late in the evening.

The spokesperson went on to say that “in the summer months Downing Street staff regularly use the garden for some meetings.”

At the time the alleged May 2020 gathering took place, coronavirus restrictions only allowed people in England to meet one person from a different household outdoors.

Germany reported an increase in the number of Omicron infections, according to a weekly report from the country’s national disease and control center, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on Thursday.

A total of 325 suspected cases were reported to the RKI by Tuesday, including 112 confirmed Omicron cases and 213 suspected cases of the variant. In the previous week, Germany only had 28 confirmed cases of the variant.

In the last 24 hours, Germany reported 50,968 new infections and 437 deaths. The country’s seven-day incidence rate dropped but remains high at 332 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Germany has reported 107,639 deaths from Covid-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Despite record-breaking confirmed cases of Covid-19 in South Africa, hospital admissions rates continue to be much lower than previous waves, South Africa’s Health Minister Joe Phaahla said Friday.

“The weekly average hospital admissions are definitely much lower than during the third wave,” Phaala said, adding that there were signs that the peak in cases was passing in Gauteng Province, the first hit by the Omicron surge which started in November.

A lower proportion of admitted patients are on oxygen and ventilators and they are staying in hospital for less time on average, according to early research by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD).

Researchers said that it is too early to definitively assess Omicron’s relative severity, adding that immunity from prior infection, as well as vaccination, could be playing a significant role.

Phaahla also said he was disappointed that vaccination rates had tailed off in the country as it heads into the holiday period. “Jab before you job,” he said, using a slang term for partying.

Nightclubs in Wales will close the day after Boxing Day in response to the threat posed by the Omicron variant, First Minister Mark Drakeford announced Thursday.

A two-meter social distancing rule will be reinstated across businesses and services, with one-way systems and physical barriers.

With Covid-19 hospitalizations rising as the holiday season gets into full swing, experts are urging people to take precautionary measures against a new variant that may quickly sweep the nation.

While the Delta variant is still a worrying presence, there could be millions of more Americans infected within weeks due to the high transmissibility of the Omicron variant, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

With so many possible cases from Omicron — which scientists believe to be more contagious though most cases so far appear to be mild — there will be a serious strain on the health care system as more workers will likely get sick, Osterholm said.

 “What you have here right now is a potential perfect storm,” Osterholm said. “I’ve been very concerned about the fact that we could easily see a quarter or a third of our health care workers quickly becoming cases themselves.”

Andy Slavitt, a former senior pandemic adviser to President Joe Biden, said that while tools such as vaccines are now available rather than during last winter’s surge, “a very rough January” lies ahead due to Omicron. 

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Australia’s New South Wales has set another daily record of 2,313 Covid-19 cases as infections surge across the state. The state has broken its own record for news for the second day in a row, with infections jumping from Thursday’s total of 1,742.

NSW Health also reported one death while 215 people are in hospital, with 24 in Intensive Care Units (ICU).

Superspreading events at large venues — including a Taylor Swift listening party in Sydney last Friday — are driving up the numbers. The spread has been made worse by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard warned on Wednesday that numbers could reach 25,000 a day by January.

A raft of restrictions have been eased across the state this week: masks are now only required on public transport, at airports, planes and for unvaccinated indoor hospitality staff. QR codes are no longer needed in supermarkets, shopping centers and other businesses.

NSW State Premier Dominic Perrottet has said he does not want to go back to a lockdown or reintroduce restrictions.

Over 93% of people over the age of 16 are fully vaccinated in New South Wales.