December 29 coronavirus pandemic and Omicron variant news

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. 

A medical staffer takes a nasal swab for a COVID-19 rapid test at a pharmacy in Rome, Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2021. 

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.

The 2022 sign that will be lit on top of a building on New Year's Eve is displayed in Times Square, New York, on Monday, Dec. 20.

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.

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.”

Workers distribute free rapid at-home Covid-19 test kits at a vaccine clinic in Philadelphia, last week.

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. 

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. 

Travelers pass through Salt Lake City International Airport on Friday, Dec. 24, 2021.

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.

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.

People wait in line at a testing site to receive a free COVID-19 PCR test in Farragut Square on December 28, 2021 in Washington, DC.

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 President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez, presents the accountability report of the Government of Spain for 2021, 'Cumpliendo', at La Moncloa, on 29 December, 2021 Madrid, Spain.

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.

Karl Lauterbach (SPD), Federal Minister of Health, speaks during a press conference on the current Corona situation on 22 December 2021 in Berlin, Germany

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.

In this file photo dated Feb. 16, 2016, former President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari at luncheon for political journalists in Helsinki, Finland. Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president, UN diplomat and recipient of the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize, has tested positive with the coronavirus.

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.”

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, appears on ABC’s Good Morning America Wednesday 29 December 2021

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.

“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.

People wearing face masks as a protection against coronavirus (Covid-19) walk at Monastiraki square in the center of Athens, on December 29, 2021

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. 

France's Prime Minister Jean Castex (C) and France's Health Minister Olivier Veran (L) speak with health workers as they visit the resuscitation unit of the Intercommunal hospital of Creteil, outside Paris, on December 28, 2021. - France reported on December 25 over 100,000 daily Covid cases, a record since the pandemic erupted nearly two years ago, with many experts warning the number would rapidly increase over the coming weeks.

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.

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.

“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:

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. 

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, speaks to CNN’s New Day on 29 December 2021

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.

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:

A volunteer hands out rapid at-home Covid-19 test kits in Chelsea, Massachusetts, on December 17.

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.

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.”

“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.

A crematory in Meissen, Germany last week.

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 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.

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.

A nurse cares for a patient in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Palma, Spain on Monday.

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. 

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

In this file photo, residents and workers of Discovery Bay subject to compulsory testing form a queue near the Discovery Bay Fire Station on Lantau Island, Hong Kong, on Nov. 2021

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.

A health worker tests a resident for Covid-19 in Xi 'an, Shaanxi Province, China, Dec. 29.

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.

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.

Domestic tourists arrive ahead of the end of year holidays season amid at the Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia on December 22,

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.

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.

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. 

“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.