Omicron fuels eight-fold rise in India’s COVID cases – Live | Coronavirus pandemic News
India began administering booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine to front-line workers and elderly people with the Omicron variant fuelling an almost eight-fold rise in daily infections since the start of the year.
In Europe, hospitalisations caused by COVID-19 significantly increased as healthcare workers in Spain, Britain, Italy and beyond found themselves in increasingly desperate circumstances.
Meanwhile, the major port of Tianjin may be facing China’s first local outbreak of Omicron less than a month before the Winter Olympics open in nearby Beijing.
Here are the latest updates for January 6:
Russia records 741 COVID deaths in 24 hours
Russia reported 741 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours amid an ongoing spike in cases.
Authorities reported 15,830 new cases in the past 24 hours, slightly up from 16,246.
A woman receives a shot of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against COVIDS-19 in Moscow [File: EPA]
Hong Kong’s first 2022 legislature meeting may be online due to COVID
Hong Kong’s first legislature meeting of 2022 may have to be held online, its council president said, after over 30 officials and MPs were quarantined following COVID infections at a birthday party of a delegate to China’s legislature.
Andrew Leung, the city’s Legislative Council president, said four legislators remained in quarantine ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, while sixteen others need to be tested again.
“If we cannot hold a physical meeting, then we will switch everything to zoom mode,” he told a media briefing.
Omicron causes almost eight-fold increase in India
The fast-spreading Omicron variant had led an almost eight-fold rise in daily infections since the start of the year.
India reported 179,723 new cases on Monday, most in the country’s biggest cities – New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata – where Omicron has overtaken Delta as the most prevalent strain of the virus.
There were 146 deaths reported, bringing the toll to 483,936 since the pandemic first struck India in early 2020, the third highest in the world.
A healthcare worker collects a coronavirus test swab in New Delhi [File: Reuters]
Europe’s healthcare under Omicron pressure
Europe’s healthcare systems are being strained again by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant over the holiday period.
Despite early studies showing a lower risk of severe disease or hospitalisation from Omicron compared with the previously dominant Delta strain, healthcare networks across Spain, Britain, Italy and beyond have found themselves in increasingly desperate circumstances.
On Friday, Britain began deploying military personnel to support hospitals experiencing staff shortages and extreme pressures due to record COVID-19 cases in the country.
“Omicron means more patients to treat and fewer staff to treat them,” National Health Service (NHS) Medical Director Professor Stephen Powis said in a statement.
Dutch hospital staff increasingly infected
In the Netherlands, infection rates are also rising sharply among hospital staff, particularly nurses and nursing assistants, Dutch daily De Telegraaf reports, following a survey of eight major hospitals.
In the worst cases, one in four tested positive in the run-up to Christmas. At Amsterdam’s University Medical Center 25 percent of staff are now testing positive, compared with five percent a week ago.
Hospitals are mulling changing their quarantine rules so infected staff who do not have symptoms can come to work, as Dutch daily case numbers break records despite a strict lockdown since December 19.
Spain unprepared for Omicron surge
Rafael Bengoa, co-founder of Bilbao’s Institute for Health and Strategy and a former senior World Health Organization official, says Spain has failed to take sufficient measures to reinforce vital services and pressure will continue to ratchet up for several weeks.
“Spain has several weeks – basically all of January – of rising cases … then hopefully we’ll hit a plateau that goes down just as fast,” he told Reuters news agency.
Bengoa says he considers it unlikely that a more infectious variant that is also more deadly than Omicron will appear and is optimistic the current wave might signal the beginning of the pandemic’s end.
“Pandemics don’t end with a huge boom but with small waves because so many have been infected or vaccinated … After Omicron we shouldn’t have to be concerned with anything more than small waves.”
People queue up to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in Madrid [File: Sergio Perez/Reuters]
China’s Tianjin in partial lockdown
China’s major port of Tianjin may be facing the country’s first local outbreak of Omicron less than a month before the Winter Olympics open in nearby Beijing.
State broadcaster CCTV says the government has divided Tianjin and its 14 million residents into three levels of restrictions, starting with lockdown areas where people are not allowed to leave their homes at all.
The city began mass testing of all its residents on Sunday after a cluster of 20 children and adults tested positive for COVID-19, including at least two with the Omicron variant. Another 20 people tested positive on Sunday.
Australia to ‘push through’: PM
Australia must “push through” a rapidly growing Omicron outbreak, Prime Minister Scott Morrison says, as the country’s total number of COVID-19 cases breached one million – more than half recorded in the past week alone.
The situation is a turnaround for Australia, which suppressed previous waves of the pandemic through lockdowns and strict border controls and quarantines.
“Omicron is a gear change and we have to push through,” Morrison told a media briefing in the capital, Canberra. “You’ve got two choices here: you can push through or you can lock down. We are for pushing through.”
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