Covid news live: South Africa says fourth wave has peaked; UK doing ‘incomparably better’ this year, says Johnson

Part of the reason that the airwaves in the UK this morning have featured a lot of chatter that things aren’t so serious with the Omicron variant is because The Times lead their front page today with a story “No need for more Covid curbs, say NHS chiefs”. They opened:

NHS chiefs do not believe that the threshold for new Covid-19 restrictions has been crossed despite a surge in hospital admissions.

The number of patients with the coronavirus on wards in England rose to 11,452 yesterday, the highest since February and up 61 per cent in a week.

While concerned by the increase in admissions, NHS leaders have been reassured by the fact that serious illness among the elderly has not risen significantly.

They then quoted Chris Hopson, the head of NHS Providers, saying:

Although the numbers are going up and going up increasingly rapidly, the absence of large numbers of seriously ill older people is providing significant reassurance. But they are aware that this may change after the Christmas period.

Trust CEOs know that the government has a high threshold to cross before it will introduce extra restrictions and can see why, in the absence of that surge of severely ill older people, that threshold hasn’t been crossed yet.

Hopson has been asked about this on the BBC Radio 4 programme this morning, and this is what he said, according to PA Media (with my emphasis on the two key lines):

It is the Government who sets the rules on restrictions, not the NHS. We still don’t know if a surge will come, and indeed we are exactly talking about the preparations we are making for that surge right now.

So, in terms of restrictions, I think we are in exactly the same place we’ve been for the past fortnight, which is the government needs to be ready to introduce tighter restrictions at real speed should they be needed.

And just to make the point that that is somewhat different to a headline that states NHS leaders think there is no need for more curbs – they may be needed at pace if the evidence warrants it.

And just one more important point, I think – it is worth remembering that it does take about a fortnight for any new restrictions to affect the level of hospital admissions, so the pattern of hospital admissions for the next fortnight has already been set.

If you were thinking of heading out to celebrate New Year’s Eve tonight, this quote from Nervtag’s Prof Peter Openshaw on BBC Breakfast might give you pause for thought. PA Media quote him saying:

Omicron is so infectious. We’re lucky really that it wasn’t this infectious when it first moved into human-to-human transmission. We’ve had several iterations of this virus going through different stages of its evolution.

It has ended up being so infectious that it almost needs just a whiff of infected breath and you could get infected.

We’re in a relatively good position in countries like the UK but I think you have to remember that in many parts of the world the vaccination rates are only about 5%, and they’re being exposed to this very infectious virus with very little protection.

Omicron spread through Europe has sent Spain’s infection rate spiralling to record highs and decimated reservations at restaurants that had pinned their hopes on holiday season trade.

Reuters spoke to Juan Lozano, head waiter at the La Querida restaurant in Madrid’s Pozuelo neighbourhood, which was almost fully booked in early December. He said that now just four tables out of La Querida’s two dozen booked on New Year’s Day. “We all thought… we’d be able to make some money and pay off many things that are overdue,” he said.

© Provided by The Guardian
A waiter cleans a glass at La Querida restaurant in Pozuelo de Alarcon, Madrid. Photograph: Javier Barbancho/Reuters

Unlike other Spanish regions, which have imposed capacity limits, mandatory COVID passes and even a curfew in Catalonia, Madrid has not introduced any restrictions on eating out and socialising. But restaurants are still feeling the pinch.

“The outlook is horrendously bad,” said Lozano, insisting that the government must give more support to the sector. He complained that state-backed soft loans were not enough.

“People say ‘can’t you get a state credit?’ Yes but that’s a debt I have to pay back, isn’t it?”

Chris Hopson, the head of NHS Providers, which represents health trusts, has said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the use of extra capacity hubs at hospitals would be a recognition that there was an “emergency” situation needed to deal with Covid-19 admissions. PA Media quotes him saying:

The hubs are there to have super-surge capacity on top of that, so we really would be in an emergency if we were having to use them and therefore we would have to use an emergency staffing model, because we are very clear in the NHS: we don’t have the staff, the existing staff, to be able to staff these beds, so we would have to go into an emergency mode.

The important thing to understand is that what we would be using these hubs for – we wouldn’t be using these hubs for the most critically ill patients. What we would be doing is using them for patients who were effectively over the worst, heading towards discharge for home

Earlier Dr Azeem Majeed, the head of primary care and public health at Imperial College London, cast some doubt on the ability to staff the hubs that were announced by NHS England yesterday. He told Times Radio:

We saw when these hubs were established in March and April last year when the NHS struggled to find the staff to man those hospitals. Hopefully those won’t be needed, but if we do need those extra beds it will be a struggle to find the staff to deal with those patients – I’m not quite sure where those staff will come from given the fact hospitals are struggling now with their current workload.

NHS England has said it is creating new small-scale “Nightingale” facilities with up to 100 beds each at eight hospitals across the country. The first sites will be at Preston, Leeds, Birmingham, Leicester, Stevenage, St George’s in London, Ashford and Bristol.

Amid a lot of optimistic noises about evidence of the “mildness” of the Omicron variant and the modest rise in hospitalisations compared to cases so far in the UK, Professor Peter Openshaw, who sits on the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), has struck a more cautious note this morning on BBC Breakfast. PA Media quote him saying:

The latest figures show extraordinary rises in infection rates and this is before we’ve had time to see the full effect of what’s happened over Christmas.

The people currently who are very sadly dying of Covid were probably infected on average about 35 days ago, so this was really before Omicron really started to transmit.

It’s therefore too early to say what the impact of Omicron is going to be on more severe disease.

It’s mostly been circulating in children, in people in contact with children, and it’s now going to spread into older adults at much higher risk of severe disease and those with pre-existing illnesses.

I’m very, very glad that a very large majority of those have been triple-vaccinated because that gives you very good levels of protection, admittedly probably not for good but at least for a while.

Here’s a little bit more detail from Reuters on the moves in Israel to offer a fourth vaccine shot. Dan Williams reports that health minister Nitzan Horowitz said today the country will extend the offer of a fourth shot to elderly people in care facilities, citing their high exposure and vulnerability to infections.

An Israeli hospital administered fourth shots to a test group of health workers on Monday, in what it called the first major study into whether a second round of boosters will help contend with the Omicron coronavirus variant. Results are expected within two weeks.

A health ministry expert panel last week recommended that Israel offer a fourth shot of the vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech to medical workers and those over 60 or with compromised immune systems.

You may recall British prime minister Boris Johnson’s words from 12 December, when he told the UK in a televised address:

A fortnight ago I said we would offer every eligible adult a booster by the end of January. Today, in light of this Omicron emergency, I am bringing that target forward by a whole month. Everyone eligible aged 18 and over in England will have the chance to get their booster before the New Year.

There then ensued a minor kerfuffle about the exact semantics of that. It certainly seemed to give the impression in some quarters that the prime minister was promising those booster jabs would be administered to everyone who wanted one, not just offered, although as you can see it was very tightly worded.

The government’s own Covid dashboard indicates that as of 29 December, 58.3% of those aged 12 and above have had a third booster jab.

Bipasha van der Zijde is a marketing and communications adviser at KIT Royal Tropical Institute, and she writes for us today that we can vaccinate 70% of the world against Covid by mid-2022:

According to the WHO vaccine strategy, published in October, the goal is to have 70% coverage across the world by June 2022. How can this target be achieved?

Will freeing up intellectual property rights, often cited as a possible solution, bridge the widening gap? For a country to start producing vaccines from scratch would be a massive challenge. According to Benjamin Ongeri, a health supply chain specialist with Crown Agents in Kenya: “Countries like Kenya have begun this journey by targeting the final filling of vaccine vials locally which is still quite challenging given the need for state-of-the-art pharmaceutical manufacturing plants that will guarantee safe production with no chance of contamination.”

A lot more will be required in terms of technology transfer and building the expertise needed to fully produce vaccines locally, these cannot be achieved in the short to medium term.

The answer lies in global funding mechanisms such as Covax – provided they can guarantee a pre-planned availability of vaccines. More equitable distribution of the jabs on a structural basis with longer shelf lives will allow for realistic and efficient planning.

Read more here: Bipasha van der Zijde – We can vaccinate 70% of the world against Covid by mid-2022. Here’s how

Related: We can vaccinate 70% of the world against Covid by mid-2022. Here’s how

In the UK, National Pharmacy Association chairman Andrew Lane said more lateral flow tests are being distributed to pharmacies but supply is “still very patchy”, and he expects the test packs to be picked up “within the first few hours” of them being delivered today.

He added that pharmacy staff are facing abuse from patients frustrated by being unable to find a test. PA Media quote him telling BBC Breakfast:

I spoke to the managing director of Alliance Healthcare who are our wholesalers that distribute the tests into pharmacies, and she assured me that they are putting out two million a day and we are starting to see that come through.

It is still very patchy though, so I will say that not every pharmacy today will have a box but most pharmacies in the country will be having a box so we just ask the public to persevere, and also treat us with respect.

We have had a lot of abuse over the last couple of weeks when the tests haven’t been there, but teams are doing their very best to help the public with this.

A box will contain, I think, 54 tests and many of our members are reporting that that box is gone within the first couple of hours of arriving within the pharmacy.

Hong Kong authorities have discovered cases of infection of the Omicron coronavirus variant in the community, Health Secretary Sophia Chan said. It marked the first local cases in about three months.

Chan told reporters, including Marius Zaharia of Reuters, that one of four air crew members testing positive after their return to Hong Kong had breached home quarantine rules by going to a restaurant, where he passed the virus to his father and a client sitting at another table.

Hong Kong had not recorded any coronavirus cases spread by community transmission since October.

Schools in Wales are being asked to prepare for the possibility of reopening in January for remote learning.

Yesterday First Minister Mark Drakeford explained in an interview with Wales Online that:

The first two days of term are planning days. What the education minister Jeremy Miles has asked schools to do is to plan for two possible futures: the one in which children can still be in the classroom, where there are sufficient staff to be there to be able to provide face-to-face learning, but to maximise the protection that can be put in place inside the classroom to keep students and staff as safe as possible.

But we recognise that there will be some schools where, because Omicron is so transmissible, there will be staff who will be ill so it won’t be possible for every child to be in the classroom and therefore that a return for some students for a shorter period of time as possible to online learning may have to be there as well.

This morning Cathy Owen reports for Wales Online that Laura Doel, director of head teachers’ union NAHT Cymru, has described remote learning as a “last resort”, and called for tests to be prioritised for schools. She said:

The availability of staff is the biggest threat to education in January. Without the workforce fit and well, learners cannot go back to the classroom. If regular LFTs are to be part of the package of mitigations it is vital that schools have a supply ready for reopening.

Another doctor, Dr Azeem Majeed, head of primary care and public health at Imperial College London, has also been on the airwaves in the UK this morning to say that NHS workers are struggling to access Covid-19 tests, and the government should prioritise key workers when distributing them. PA Media quote him telling Times Radio:

I struggled to get a test recently. I am required to test twice a week as an NHS worker but when I log on to the online site, there’s often none in stock.

It’s not just NHS staff but other key workers too, such as social care workers, police, fire service and so on, who need these tests as well so it is worrying that they’re in such short supply at the moment.

My view is that people in key groups, whether they’re healthcare workers or other key workers like public transport should be prioritised to ensure our NHS can function, our schools can function, that our society can function well.

Queensland in Australia is due to change travel restrictions into the state despite a surge in fresh Covid cases and criticisms the new requirements are “pointless” in states with large outbreaks.

From 11.59pm on Friday 31 December, travellers entering Queensland will be required to return a negative rapid antigen test (RAT) result within 72 hours before travel, rather than a negative PCR test.

The change in rules comes as the state recorded 3,118 new cases overnight, with the number of active infections rising to 11,697.

Evidence of a negative test result has to be uploaded to the Queensland Health website when applying for a border pass, with applicants making a declaration the information is correct.

However, the change raises questions about the accuracy and reliability of test results, as unlike PCR tests, the tests are not performed by trained professionals or analysed by and reported to a central authority.

Police commissioner Katarina Carroll said on Wednesday that from January those caught lying about a RAT result on their border declaration would face a heavy fine.

Read more of Royce Kurmelovs’ report here: Queensland’s new travel rule labelled ‘pointless’ as state faces fresh Covid surge

Related: Queensland’s new travel rule labelled ‘pointless’ as state faces fresh Covid surge

Hogmanay in Scotland will be marked for a second consecutive year with restrictions in place on the hospitality sector. Pubs will be able to stay open provided they have table service in place, but there will be no nightclubbing.

In her new year message, Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has praised healthcare workers, saying:

Throughout this year, our health and care workers have continued to do an absolutely magnificent job. And those working on our vaccination programme have provided all of us with an incredible service. Thanks to their efforts – and also thanks to the sacrifices of people right across the country – earlier this year businesses were able to reopen.

The Omicron variant is a very significant threat. It means that at the moment, we need above all to keep each other safe. We all need to stay at home, far more than we would want to at this time of year. And we have asked that you minimise new year socialising as much as you can.

So this is not the Hogmanay we all wanted and hoped for. But I believe that we can still look ahead to 2022 with optimism.

Chaand Nagpaul, who is chair of the Council of the British Medical Association, has been on Sky News this morning in the UK outlining what he sees as one of the significant issues with the lack of availability of lateral flow or PCR tests in the UK at the moment – the knock-on effect for staffing in the NHS. He said:

We’ve seen up to about a three times increase in staff absence from either infection or isolation in some London hospitals. Now that’s creating huge pressure on the system, when we already are short-staffed at the busiest time of the year.

And to add to that problem, we now have a situation where many staff cannot get their lateral flow tests, or a PCR test, which means they can’t return to work. Because what they need to return to work is to demonstrate a negative lateral flow test on day six and seven, which was specially introduced so that we can shorten the period of isolation.

So this is creating enormous problems for us. And for the workforce that remains, they’re having to carry out the work of their absent colleagues. And that’s adding additional strain and stress, and patients are therefore going to suffer as a result.

Testing capability is also making the headlines in Australia. Ben Butler reports for us:

The Victorian and New South Wales governments are scrambling to organise the distribution of rapid antigen tests to vulnerable people amid short supply, confusion over who should use them and skyrocketing Covid case numbers.

Amid a national shortage of the tests, both governments said they were working out how best to distribute tens of millions of kits they have ordered, most of which will not arrive until the end of January.

NSW and Victoria have watered down previous commitments to provide free tests after a national cabinet meeting with the federal government on Thursday.

Adding to the confusion, on Friday morning the prime minister, Scott Morrison, issued a statement removing a requirement that confirmed Covid cases who are in isolation but don’t have symptoms take a test on the sixth day.

This directly contradicted statements, also made on Friday, by the NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, and Victoria’s health minister, Martin Foley, that a day-six rapid test was required.

Read more of Ben Butler’s report here: NSW and Victoria unable to explain how Covid rapid antigen tests will be distributed to vulnerable

Related: NSW and Victoria unable to explain how Covid rapid antigen tests will be distributed to vulnerable

If you’ve just joined us here’s a quick rundown of the latest developments:

• UK prime minister Boris Johnson claims Britain is in an “incomparably better” position in the fight against Covid than it was at the end of 2020, in his new year’s message.
• South Africa, the first country to report the Omicron variant, says a dip in infections in the past week indicates the peak of the current wave has passed.
• Daily Covid cases in New South Wales, Australia, almost doubled overnight, raising pressure on the state’s health system.
• Israel has approved a fourth vaccine shot for vulnerable and immunocompromised people, becoming one of the first countries to do so.
• China is set to impose new import restrictions over virus contamination fears in a move that has worried foreign businesses providing goods to the world’s largest market for food and drink.
• South Korea said on Friday it will extend stricter social distancing rules for two weeks until 16 January. The curbs ban gatherings of over four fully vaccinated people, and require restaurants, cafes and bars to close by 9pm and movie theatres and internet cafes by 10pm.
• A US woman has told how she confined herself to an aeroplane toilet cubicle after testing positive for Covid halfway through a flight from Chicago to Iceland.
• New Zealand has eased rules on public gatherings in time for New Year’s Eve after a scare over community cases of the new Omicron variant.
• New York City will go ahead with New Year’s Eve celebrations in Times Square as planned despite record numbers of Covid-19 infections.
• Foreign revellers on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali have been warned they could be deported if they are caught violating Covid-19 health rules during New Year celebrations.
• US health experts are urging Americans to prepare for severe disruptions in coming weeks due to the rising wave of Covid cases led by the Omicron variant.

The World Health Organization has issued a message of hope while urging renewed action for the year ahead.

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said:

With the curtain closing on 2021, we are faced by a somber milestone, and a stark choice. The power is in our hands to change the course of the Covid-19 crisis once and for all.”

In a statement titled ‘My hope for ending the Covid-19 pandemic’ Tedros outlined a series of resolutions including a global target of vaccinating 70% of people in all countries by the middle of 2022, building a stronger global framework for global health security and investing in stronger primary health care.

I believe that if we can make progress on these goals, we will be gathering again, at the end of 2022, not to mark the end of a third year of pandemic, but to celebrate a return to pre-Covid norms, when we gathered with our families and communities to celebrate together and cherish each other’s company and love.”

In series of video messages shared to Twitter, he added:

If we end inequity, we end the pandemic, and end the global nightmare we have all lived through.

This will be the year we end it [the pandemic] … When health is at risk everything is at risk.”

Hello, it is Martin Belam here in London taking over from Samantha Lock. Here’s a recap of the latest Covid figures for the UK.

Over the last seven days there have been nearly 1 million new coronavirus cases recorded in the UK – 984,147. Cases have increased by 45.1% week-on-week.

There have been 701 deaths recorded in the last week. Deaths have decreased by 10.6% week-on-week.

Hospital admissions have increased by 32.3% week-on-week. At the latest count on the UK government’s own dashboard, there were 11,898 people in hospital in total, of whom 868 are in ventilation beds.

There’s some considerable caveats over those numbers though, due to data collection issues over the holiday period. With the constraint on the availability of tests, that record number of new cases may be an undercount.

Nevertheless, the large number of cases is yet to translate into a significant increase in deaths or hospitalisations, which many will see as a positive sign and a vindication of the decision in England not to impose significant new Covid restrictions.

Hello and thanks for joining us for our final Covid blog of 2021. I’m Samantha Lock and I’m certainly hoping for a more promising new year ahead and end to the pandemic.

UK prime minister Boris Johnson claims Britain is in an “incomparably better” position in the fight against Covid than it was at the end of 2020, in his new year’s message.

“We can say one thing with certainty – our position this December the 31st is incomparably better than last year,” Johnson said, while admitting there was still anxiety about the Omicron variant and growing numbers of hospital admissions.

However, he hailed the success of the government’s vaccine programme as the “one overriding reason” that tougher restrictions were not needed in the face of daily case numbers hitting record levels.

“Precisely because of that huge national effort that we can celebrate tonight at all,” he said.

© Provided by The Guardian
A jogger runs past the Covid-19 Memorial Wall in London, Britain, on 27 December. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

More promising news has also emerged from South Africa, the first country to report the Omicron variant.

Health officials say a dip in infections in the past week indicates the peak of the current wave has passed.

“All indicators suggest the country may have passed the peak of the fourth wave at a national level,” a statement from the special cabinet meeting held earlier on Thursday said.

New cases detected in the week ending 25 December fell 29.7% compared to the previous week, government data showed.

Daily Covid cases in New South Wales, Australia, almost doubled overnight, raising pressure on the state’s health system.

Cases have likely exceeded 25,000 a day, a month earlier than the government was predicting a fortnight ago, an acceleration likely to bring forward the strains on the health system, experts say.

The NSW government reported 21,151 new cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday, almost a 90% jump on the previous day’s tally. Kerry Chant, the state’s chief health officer, said in a video briefing it’s “likely” the increase is higher than reported.

Michael Lydeamore, an infectious disease modeller at Monash University said tests were probably catching about 80% of actual cases, meaning NSW will already be at the 25,000 cases a day rate flagged by health minister Brad Hazzard on 15 December.

Read the full story here.

Related: NSW Covid cases almost double overnight, raising pressure on health system

The World Health Organization has shared an optimistic message ahead of the New Year.

Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, infectious disease epidemiologist and WHO Covid-19 Technical Lead, said:

We can take the death out of Covid-19 and we can also reduce the spread.

It will end. This pandemic will end.

I’m incredibly hopeful for 2022 in the fact that we can regain control over this.”

Germany is reporting a daily rise of 41,240 confirmed coronavirus cases and 323 deaths, according to recently released data from the Robert Koch Institute.

China will impose new import restrictions from Saturday in a move that has worried foreign businesses providing goods to the world’s largest market for food and drink.

Under laws set to kick in on 1 January, all producers of food shipped to China will have to register with the customs authority.

The extra hurdle was previously required only for products posing potential health risks, such as seafood. But now coffee, alcohol, honey, olive oil, chocolate and several other products will also be scrutinised, Agence France-Presse reports.

© Provided by The Guardian
Containers seen piled at a port in Qingdao in eastern China’s Shandong province as China is set to impose new import restrictions from Saturday. Photograph: AP

On New Year’s Day, “the import curtain will fall”, Alban Renaud, a China-based lawyer with the firm Adaltys, told AFP.

Food companies and importers have already been battered by control measures included in Beijing’s strict zero-Covid strategy, with China linking the virus to food ever since a Beijing outbreak last year was blamed on imported salmon.

Products entering China are now subject to extra screening and repeated disinfection, with products often banned when a Covid outbreak is discovered at the point of packing overseas.

The World Health Organization has said the chances of Covid-19 being transported in food are slim.

South Korea said on Friday it will extend stricter social distancing rules for two weeks amid a persistent surge in serious coronavirus infections and concerns over the spread of the Omicron variant.

The government reinstated the curbs on 18 December, six weeks after easing them under a “living with Covid-19” scheme, as record-breaking numbers of new infections and serious cases put a huge strain on the country’s medical system.

The extension is also aimed at bracing for a further spread of Omicron cases by using the time to secure more hospital beds and encourage a booster vaccine shot campaign, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said.

© Provided by The Guardian
People walk on a deck along the Han River in Seoul on 29 December as South Korea announces it will extend stricter social distancing rules for two weeks. Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images

“We should reserve sufficient beds that can cover some 10,000 cases a day, and we should also speed up booster shots and children’s vaccinations,” he told an intra-agency meeting.

The curbs, which will be effective until 16 January ban gatherings of over four fully vaccinated people, and require restaurants, cafes and bars to close by 9 pm and movie theatres and internet cafes by 10pm.

Unvaccinated people can only dine out alone, or use takeout or delivery services.

South Korea also cancelled its traditional midnight bell-ringing ceremony.

A US woman has told how she confined herself to an aeroplane toilet cubicle after testing positive for Covid halfway through a flight from Chicago to Iceland.

Marisa Fotieo, a teacher from Michigan, said her throat began to hurt halfway through the trip so she went to the bathroom to perform a rapid Covid test which confirmed she was infected.

“I just took my rapid test and I brought it into the bathroom, and within what felt like two seconds there were two lines [indicating a positive test],” Fotieo told NBC News.

Sharing the news over TikTok, Fotieo posted a short video from inside the cramped quarters, writing: “POV you test positive for Covid while over the Atlantic Ocean.”

Read the full story here.

Related: Woman self-isolates in plane toilet for five hours after Covid-positive test mid-flight

Stock markets in Asia are looking mixed today with the Nikkei, Australia’s ASX200 index and Kospi in Seoul all down.

This is despite the Nikkei finishing at its highest point since 1989 – just before its bubble burst – in Thursday’s session.

It was more positive in China and Hong Kong where all the induces were up helped by positive figures about China’s giant manufacturing sector and an easing of commodity prices.

New Zealand has eased rules on public gatherings in time for New Year’s Eve after a scare over community cases of the new Omicron variant.

The country is set to lead the world’s celebrations of the new year at midnight on Friday and crowds will be allowed to gather in Auckland for the first time since August to join in the party after the city’s Covid traffic-light settings were moved from red to orange.

© Provided by The Guardian
Customers eat outside in cafes in central Auckland, New Zealand, as the country is set to lead the world’s celebrations of the new year at midnight on Friday. Photograph: Alex Burton/AP

New Zealand is traditionally one of the first countries to bring in the new year before time differences usher in midnight elsewhere but the festivities had been threatened by tight coronavirus restrictions in place for months.

Under orange settings, the bars, restaurants and cafes that enforce vaccine pass requirements can remove crowd size limits and the requirement to sit down, allowing people to dance the night away.

Read the full story here.

Related: New Zealand eases Covid crowd rules in time for New Year’s Eve, despite Omicron scare

New York City will go ahead with New Year’s Eve celebrations in Times Square as planned despite record numbers of Covid-19 infections.

Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed the news on Thursday, saying the city’s high Covid-19 vaccination rate makes it feasible to welcome masked, socially distanced crowds to watch the ball drop in Times Square.

We want to show that we’re moving forward, and we want to show the world that New York City is fighting our way through this.

We’ve got to send a message to the world. New York City is open.”

© Provided by The Guardian
The 2022 sign that will be lit for New Year’s Eve is displayed in Times Square, New York, as officials say the event will go ahead. Photograph: Seth Wenig/AP

City officials previously announced plans for a scaled-back New Year’s bash with smaller crowds and vaccinations required.

Other US cities such as Atlanta have cancelled New Year’s Eve celebrations,

New York City reported a record number of new, confirmed coronavirus cases — almost 44,000 — on Wednesday, according to New York state figures.

Foreign revellers on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali have been warned they could be deported if they are caught violating Covid-19 health rules during New Year celebrations, authorities warned on Thursday.

Bali immigration office head Jamaruli Manihuruk warned that health rules must be observed in an interview with AFP.

Get ready to be kicked out.”

Bali’s governor has barred carnivals, fireworks and gatherings of more than 50 people over the Christmas and New Year period.

Malls, restaurants and cafes must shut by 10pm, and only operate at 75% capacity.

© Provided by The Guardian
Tourists wear face mask as they walk at a shopping area in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia, on 29 December. Photograph: Made Nagi/EPA

Bali has taken a tough stance on tourists who violate Covid-19 protocols.

Almost 200 tourists were deported from Bali in 2021, Manihuruk said, with seven booted out for violating health protocols.

Indonesia has been seriously hit by the coronavirus pandemic. As of Wednesday, it had reported more than 4.2 million confirmed Covid-19 cases, and more than 144,000 deaths. Bali alone reported more than 110,000 confirmed cases with over 4,000 deaths.

Vaccination rates remain relatively low and country is vulnerable to new outbreaks.

US health experts are urging Americans to prepare for severe disruptions in coming weeks due to the rising wave of Covid cases led by the Omicron variant.

Dr Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, told MSNBC:

We are going to see the number of cases in this country rise so dramatically, we are going to have a hard time keeping everyday life operating.

The next month is going to be a viral blizzard,” he added. “All of society is going to be pressured by this.”

Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease official, also warned cases will likely rise throughout January.

The governor of Louisiana, where hospitalisations have more than tripled in the past two weeks, said January would be “very challenging”.

“We are still at the very beginning of this current surge,” John Bel Edwards told a news conference on Thursday. “January is going to be very, very challenging.”

The warning comes as the United States reached a record high in Covid-19 cases for the second day in a row.

South Africa has lifted a nighttime curfew on people’s movement with immediate effect, believing the country has passed the peak of its fourth coronavirus wave driven by the Omicron variant.

The government removed the midnight-to-4am curfew based on the trajectory of the pandemic, vaccination levels and available capacity in the health sector, the government said on Thursday.

A statement from a special cabinet meeting held earlier on Thursday said:

All indicators suggest the country may have passed the peak of the fourth wave at a national level.

While the Omicron variant is highly transmissible, there has been lower rates of hospitalisation than in previous waves.”

© Provided by The Guardian
Swimmers enjoy a sweltering day at Strand Beach near Cape Town, South Africa, as new Covid-19 cases dropped in recent days. Photograph: Nardus Engelbrecht/AP

Data from the Department of Health showed a 29.7% weekly decrease in new cases detected in the week ending 25 December, the government said. Hospital admissions have declined in eight of South Africa’s nine provinces.

South Africa, with close to 3.5 million infections and 91,000 deaths, has been the worst-hit country in Africa during the pandemic on both counts, and was where the Omicron variant of the coronavirus was first detected last month.

The country is at the lowest of its five-stage Covid-19 alert levels.

Related: Omicron-fuelled fourth Covid wave has passed, says South Africa, as it eases restrictions

Israel has approved a fourth vaccine shot for vulnerable and immunocompromised people, becoming one of the first countries to do so, amid a surge in Covid in cases driven by the Omicron variant.

The country also received its first shipment of Pfizer’s anti-Covid pills.

Health ministry director-general Nachman Ash told reporters:

Today I approved giving the fourth vaccine for immunocompromised people.

I did this in light of studies that show the benefit of the vaccine, including the fourth vaccine, to this population, and in light of the fear they are more vulnerable in this outbreak of Omicron.”

© Provided by The Guardian
A Jewish boy walks past a coronavirus vaccination centre, in Jerusalem, as Israel becomes the first country to approve a fourth vaccine shot for vulnerable and immunocompromised people. Photograph: Oded Balilty/AP

Health authorities reported on Thursday more than 4,000 new cases, a high not seen since September.

Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said Israel was in “a fifth wave”, with most cases probably related to the Omicron variant.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel, which was among the first countries in the world to offer a third shot to the general public, would be a trailblazer for the fourth jab.

“Israel will lead the way in administering a fourth vaccine to the Israeli people,” he said.

Hello it’s Samantha Lock back with you on the blog as we count down the final hours until 2022.

Regions across the world are battling to stem a surge in Covid infections driven largely by the Omicron variant.

However South Africa, the first country to report the variant, appears to be bucking the trend.

Health officials say a dip in infections in the past week indicates the peak of the current wave has passed.

“All indicators suggest the country may have passed the peak of the fourth wave at a national level,” a statement from the special cabinet meeting held earlier on Thursday said.

New cases detected in the week ending 25 December fell 29.7% compared to the previous week, government data showed.

Meanwhile in the United States, health experts are urging Americans to prepare for severe disruptions in coming weeks due to the rising wave of Covid cases led by the Omicron variant.

“We are going to see the number of cases in this country rise so dramatically, we are going to have a hard time keeping everyday life operating,” Dr Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, told MSNBC.

“The next month is going to be a viral blizzard,” he added. “All of society is going to be pressured by this.”

Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease official, also warned cases will likely rise throughout January.

Here’s a quick summary of the latest Covid developments:

• The number of people to die from Covid in Eastern Europe has reached 1 million, as Russia climbed above Brazil to become the country with the second-highest deaths behind the US.
• South Africa said the country had passed its Omicron peak without a major death surge, offering hope to countries hit hard by the mutated variant.
• France reported 206,243 new confirmed Covid cases, a tally above 200,000 for the second day running.
• The UK reported 189,213 new Covid cases, smashing Wednesday’s record-breaking tally of 183,037 positive tests.
• The UK is dogged by a shortage of tests, as Wales assists England with 4m tests amid fears of New Year’s Eve celebrations turning into breeding grounds for the virus.
• Scotland’s first minister urged people to avoid household mixing after a record high of nearly 17,000 cases.
• India fears it is entering a new wave after cases surge, as confirmed Omicron cases also climb.
• Portugal cuts Covid isolation from ten days to seven, after the World Health Organization said on Wednesday slashing isolation was a trade-off between transmission and economic concerns.
• Germany will drop quarantine demands for UK travellers from 4 January after seeing its own Omicron cases jump above 3,000 recently.
• Malaysia detected 3,997 positive Covid cases, with the number among survivors of its recently deadly floods rising to 442 in total.
• Japan recorded over 500 new infections for the first time in two months.
• Five Bulgarian regions moved from yellow to red zones as the country recorded 3,449 new infections, a 139% jump on two weeks ago.
• The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said all people should avoid cruises, following a rise in onboard Covid cases in a major blow to the industry.