France, Turkey and UK report new daily COVID highs: Live news | Coronavirus
Daily coronavirus infections in the Netherlands soared to a record high of around 24,500 as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus has become dominant in the country, official data showed.
Omicron is driving record daily cases of coronavirus from the United States to Australia, adding to pressure on health services.
Australia, once feted for its success in controlling the virus, reported 64,758 new cases on Wednesday most of them in the states of New South Wales and Victoria.
Meanwhile, China is doubling down on its COVID-zero strategy, announcing new city lockdowns in response to only a few cases, and Hong Kong is ordering people who were in some 57 locations visited by close contacts of a person later confirmed with Omicron to undergo compulsory testing.
Here are the latest updates for Wednesday:
Omicron shows virus ‘very flexible’: epidemiologist
Epidemiologist Deepti Gurdasani of Queen Mary University in London believes the Omicron variant has shown the coronavirus is “very flexible”, making the future course of the pandemic very “unpredictable” amid continuing transmission.
“The Omicron variant is so different to the other variants that we’ve seen that’s actually able to enter in cells in completely different ways from the ways previous rates used to enter. And what we realised is that the space for adaptation of this virus is quite large,” she told Al Jazeera.
“And as long as transmission is allowed to continue, the course of the pandemic is going to be very, very unpredictable.”
Italy to make COVID vaccine mandatory for over-50s until June 15: Reuters
The Italian government is set to make coronavirus vaccination mandatory for people aged 50 and above, a draft decree seen by the Reuters news agency showed as a cabinet on new curbs was still continuing.
The obligation will be effective until June 15, the draft decree said.
US cases up 98 percent since last week
COVID-19 cases in the United States are up 98 percent compared to last week, officials said, amid rising concern over the rapid spread of the Omicron variant in the country.
During a regular COVID news briefing Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that the US is currently averaging 491,700 cases per day.
Hospitalisations, currently averaging 14,800 per day, were 63 percent higher than last week. Deaths, at 1,200 per day, were at a 5 percent increase from a week ago.
“Over the last several weeks and over the holidays we have seen a significant and rapid increase in COVID-19 cases,” Walensky said.
The CDC also said that the highly infectious Omicron variant now accounts for 95 percent of coronavirus cases in the US, while only 5 percent are due to the Delta strain.
Deaths, at 1,200 per day, were at a 5 percent increase from a week ago [File: Joseph Prezioso/AFP]
UK authorities ease testing requirements
Health authorities across the UK simplified COVID-19 testing requirements on, a move designed to cut isolation times for many people and that may ease the staffing shortages that are hitting public…
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