(Bloomberg) — The number of new coronavirus cases reported Thursday was more than 2 million for the first time since the pandemic began. It was the fourth consecutive day of more than 1 million cases, a new record reached earlier in the week.
Hong Kong reported its first instances of community spread in nearly seven months, and China called for even tighter restrictions to control an outbreak in Xi’an, pointing to the challenges of holding the Covid Zero line against the spread of omicron.
Australia’s most populous state reported record new cases in the past 24 hours, and Canada’s most populous province said the omicron variant is spreading too quickly to make publicly funded Covid-19 PCR tests available beyond the most vulnerable residents.
Key Developments:
- Virus Tracker: Cases pass 285 million; deaths pass 5.4 million
- Vaccine Tracker: More than 9.11 billion shots given
- Errors, inaction sent a deadly Covid variant around the world
- Chinese shot-maker Sinovac warns vaccine revenue may fall
- Vaccinated tourists boost Mexico jet fuel use to pre-Covid level
- What we know about the omicron variant now: QuickTake
China Punishes People Fleeing Xi’an (12:45 p.m. HK)
Police in China are tracking down people trying to leave Xi’an, which has been on lockdown for more than a week. One man was caught after trying to wade across a river and another pedaled 80 kilometers (about 50 miles) on a shared bicycle to his hometown. A third man who hiked 100 kilometers from the airport to a nearby county was later sent to quarantine.
Vice Premier Sun Chunlan said local authorities need to adopt more “targeted and forceful” measures and improve quarantine controls, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late Thursday. China reported 166 local confirmed cases for Thursday, 97% of them in Xi’an.
Community Spread Found in Hong Kong (11:50 a.m. HK)
Two Hong Kong residents have been preliminarily diagnosed with Covid-19, marking the first community spread of the virus in nearly seven months. Both infections are likely linked to an air crew member who moved about the city following an overseas flight.
Hong Kong imposes strict vaccination and quarantine requirements for most overseas arrivals, measures that residents have decried as overly burdensome but which have kept the virus largely at bay.
In light of the worldwide spread of omicron, the government recently ended exemptions for aircrew and increased the mandatory hotel quarantine to seven days for workers on cargo planes. The stricter rules prompted Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, Hong Kong’s flagship carrier, suspended all long-haul freight and cargo-only flights for seven days.
South Korea Extends Restrictions Again (8:25 a.m. HK)
South Korea said its newly strengthened social distancing rules will stay in place for at least two more weeks. The restrictions, which ban private gatherings of five or more people and close restaurants and coffee shops at 9 p.m., were reinstated in mid-Dec. as daily cases hit a record.
Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said it’s too early to say the crisis is over, even if cases have declined following the new rules and a ramped-up booster campaign. The country reported 4,875 new cases Thursday, falling for third day and bringing the seven-day average to its lowest since the tighter restrictions took effect.
New South Wales Reports Record Cases (5:30 p.m. NY)
Australia’s most populous state on Friday reported a record 21,151 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, a 73% increase compared with a day earlier, though hospitalization numbers rose more modestly.
New South Wales, which includes Sydney, said 832 Covid patients were hospitalized on Friday, up from 746 on Thursday. That’s still the highest since early October, when Sydney was preparing to emerge from a protracted lockdown driven by the delta variant. Neighboring Victoria state reported 5,919 new Covid infections, of which 428 were hospitalized.
Ontario Limits Testing to Vulnerable (4:45 p.m. NY)
Ontario will reserve publicly funded Covid-19 PCR tests for only the most vulnerable residents as Canada’s most populous province can’t keep up with record infections from the omicron variant.
Official testing will no longer be required for people who had a positive result using a rapid antigen test, Chief Medical Officer Kieran Moore said Thursday during a virtual announcement.
“The omicron variant is rapidly spreading and we must preserve these resources for those who need them the most,” Moore said.
U.S. Airlines Scrub 1,125 Flights (4:35 p.m. NY)
Airline cancellations are piling up in the U.S. as rising coronavirus cases hobbled staffing, while winter storms threatened to further disrupt travel over New Year’s weekend.
JetBlue Airways Corp. scratched 175 flights, accounting for 17% of its schedule, by 4:20 p.m. Thursday in New York, according to FlightAware.com. Allegiant canceled 96 flights, or 19% of its service. United Airlines Holdings Inc. scrubbed 199 flights, representing 9% of its schedule.
Denver, Atlanta and Los Angeles were among the hardest hit for cancellations and delays Thursday afternoon, according to FlightAware, amid strong winds and precipitation.
“Like many businesses and organizations, we have seen a surge in the number of sick calls from omicron,” JetBlue said by email. To give customers time to make other plans, the New York-based carrier pared its schedule through Jan. 13.
Vaccine Rule Fights Continue in High Court (4:25 p.m. NY)
Fights at the U.S. Supreme Court over the Biden administration’s Covid-19 shot-or-test rule for large employers and its separate vaccine mandate for health-care workers moved forward with another round of briefing Thursday.
The administration urged the justices to let its rule for employers remain in effect while litigation against the measure proceeds at a federal appeals court. A group of Republican-led states separately told the high court that the health worker mandate—currently blocked in half the U.S.—shouldn’t resume nationwide while several lawsuits unfold.
The cases test the power of federal agencies to make critical decisions and protect workers and patients in the face of a pandemic that’s killed more than 820,000 Americans. The high court will consider both vaccine measures during a special session on Jan. 7.
Delaware to Declare Emergency (4:10 p.m. NY)
Delaware Governor John Carney said he will issue a state of emergency on Monday to combat record cases and hospitalizations at 100% capacity in parts of the state.
Carney said as recently as a week ago that he was reluctant to declare an emergency out of worry over the effect on businesses. He said the new order will allow members of the Delaware National Guard to work as nursing assistants in hospitals and nursing homes.
“We need all Delawareans and Delaware businesses to step up and help us get through this winter surge,” the Democrat said in a press release. “At the state level, we are focused on reducing the strain on our hospitals this winter.”
U.S. Shoppers Undeterred by Omicron (2:51 p.m. NY)
Americans didn’t let omicron stop them from going out for some last-minute holiday shopping and entertainment.
Activity at businesses including restaurants and retail stores increased as much as 4.8% in the week leading up to Christmas compared with the beginning of the month, according to figures from SafeGraph, which tracks mobile-phone geolocation data. Foot traffic peaked mid-week before declining on Dec. 24 as some shops closed for the holidays.
South Africa Lifts Curfew (2:26 p.m. NY)
South Africa lifted its curfew and restrictions on the sale of alcohol, though it retains a requirement to weak masks in public, as well as restrictions on the number of people at gatherings. The country appears to have passed the fourth wave of coronavirus infections, and has spare hospital capacity despite the high transmissibility of the omicron variant, Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele said in a statement.
Texas Hospitalizations Soar (1:59 p.m. NY)
Texas virus hospitalizations jumped 54% in the past week to a level not seen since mid-October as Houston threatens to become the Lone Star state’s newest hot spot.
Hospitals reported more than 5,550 Covid-19 patients across the second-largest U.S. state, according to health department figures. Almost one-fourth of those patients required intensive-care treatment, straining already stretched ICU capacity in El Paso, Lubbock, Amarillo, Wichita Falls and Waco.
Meanwhile, the burden on medical facilities is increasing in the Houston area with almost 12% of hospital beds occupied by virus patients, state figures showed. Houston, the fourth-biggest U.S. city, surpassed Lubbock in terms of hospital load, trailing only El Paso and Amarillo.
Israel to Offer Second Booster (1:43 p.m. NY)
Israel will become the first nation to offer a second booster dose, approving the additional shot for the most vulnerable as infections caused by the omicron variant rise, the Associated Press reported.
Nachman Ash, director general of the Health Ministry, was quoted as saying access to the second booster could be expanded to a wider population.
A first shipment of Pfizer Inc.’s anti-coronavirus drug arrived in Israel on Thursday, the prime minister’s office said. It did not say how many pills had been ordered or delivered. Channel 12 news reported that the shipment contained tens of thousands of pills.
Vaccine Safe for Children, CDC Says (1:04 p.m. NY)
Pfizer Inc.’s vaccine caused mostly mild side effects for children ages 5 to 11, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Results of a survey covering 30,000 children who each received two shots show adverse reactions were similar to those seen in clinical trials, the CDC said. The phone survey, called v-safe, found the most frequent reactions were injection site pain, fatigue and headache.
New Jersey Hospitalizations Spike (12:33 p.m. NY)
Hospitalizations jumped 60% from a week ago in New Jersey, the most densely populated U.S. state. The 3,604 patients numbered just 122 short of those a year ago, before vaccinations were widely available.
The state logged 27,975 cases over 24 hours, a record, and 38 Covid-related deaths.
CDC Warns Against Cruises (12:25 p.m. NY)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said to avoid cruise travel, regardless of vaccination status as “even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading Covid-19 variants.”
The CDC updated its Covid-19 Travel Health Notice from Level 3 to Level 4, the highest level, to reflect an increase in cases onboard cruise ships since the identification of the omicron variant.
The Cruise Lines International Association trade group said in an email that the CDC recommendation “is particularly perplexing” since the number of cases identified on ships “make up a very slim minority of the total population onboard — far fewer than on land.”
NYC’s Adams Vows to Keep Vaccine Mandate (11:58 a.m. NY)
New York City’s Mayor-elect Eric Adams promised Thursday to keep schools and businesses open amid record coronavirus infections by encouraging more vaccinations, boosters and testing.
Adams outlined a six-point Covid-19 plan during a news briefing that includes keeping outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio’s mandate for all private sector employees to be vaccinated. His approach to the mandate will be “cooperative, not punitive,” with the city’s focus on “vaccine and testing, vaccine and testing,” said Adams, who takes office on Saturday.
FDA to Approve Boosters for Teens: NYT (11:52 a.m. NY)
The Food and Drug Administration is planning to expand eligibility for coronavirus vaccine booster doses on Monday, allowing 12- to 15-year-olds to receive a third dose of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine, The New York Times reports, citing people familiar with the agency’s plans.
Greece Reduces Quarantine (11:44 a.m. NY)
Greece is reducing to five days from 10 the self-isolation requirement for people who test positive as long as they have no symptoms at the end of the period, Greek Health Ministry officials said Thursday. Individuals who have received the booster no longer need to self-isolate after coming into contact with a confirmed case, but must wear FFP2 technology or two surgery masks for 10 days and undergo a PCR test after five days.
Greece reported Thursday 35,580 new cases, a fourth straight daily record.
Russia Records Deadliest Month (11:02 a.m. NY)
November was Russia’s deadliest month of the Covid-19 pandemic, deepening a demographic crisis that President Vladimir Putin says is a threat to the country’s future.
There were a record 85,527 deaths associated with the virus last month, according to data released by the Federal Statistics Service late Thursday. That was a 16% increase over the previous month, and raised total fatalities linked to Covid-19 in Russia to more than 625,000.
British Airways Cancels H.K. Flights (10:07 a.m. NY)
British Airways has scrapped flights to Hong Kong until March as the territory further tightens aircrew quarantine restrictions to contain the spread of the omicron coronavirus variant.
Studies Show T-Cells Buck Omicron (7:57 a.m. NY)
An unsung arm of the immune system appears to protect against severe disease with the omicron variant even when antibodies wane, helping to explain why a record wave of infections hasn’t engulfed hospitals so far.
T cells, the body’s weapon against virus-infected cells, were primed enough by vaccination that they defended against omicron in separate studies from Erasmus University in the Netherlands and the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
(An earlier version of this story corrected the increase in cases in New South Wales in that item)
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