Covid live news: Russia reports record 121,228 new cases; UK to start vaccinating vulnerable children | World news

Algeria has reported its first case of the BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron pressure of the virus, in accordance Reuters, citing Ennahar TV.

Final week the well being ministry in Denmark stated the BA.2 variant was extra contagious than authentic pressure of Omicron.

Iran has introduced that the variety of its new instances have nearly doubled within the final 24 hours from 11,731 on Saturday to 21,996 on Sunday.

Iran is the grip of a fourth wave of the virus because the highly-infectious Omicron variant take maintain. Iran’s well being ministry additionally introduced an extra 44 new Covid deaths.

Officers in Beijing have sealed off a number of residential communities within the metropolis’s northern district after two new Covid instances had been discovered, AP stories.

Residents within the Anzhenli neighbourhood in Chaoyang district had been sealed off on Saturday, and won’t be allowed to depart their compound.

Beijing is on excessive alert because it prepares to host the Olympic Video games opening on Friday.

Whereas the instances are low in comparison with different nations within the area, China has double down on its “zero-tolerance” coverage, which incorporates breaking the chain of transmission as quickly as it’s discovered.

Town can be organising 19 factors within the space to check residents daily till Friday, officers stated at a briefing on the pandemic, in keeping with state-backed Beijing Information.

Right here’s a roundup of the most recent developments:

• The Winter Olympics, which start in 5 days in Beijing, have been hit by 34 new infections amongst athletes and officers. Poland’s quick observe medal hopeful Natalia Maliszewska is amongst those that examined constructive. In the meantime, the town of Beijing has reported 20 new instances – its highest for 18 months.
• The UK’s overseas secretary, Liz Truss, has stated it’s the authorities’s “intention to publish the total report” into alleged lockdown breaking events in Downing Avenue. She additionally admitted: “It’s a little bit of a multitude that we’ve got the police investigation alongside the Sue Grey report”.
• The NHS has introduced it’s going to start providing vaccinations to youngsters aged between 5 and 11 who’re most in danger from the virus. Kids within the cohort who had been in a scientific threat group or who reside with somebody who’s immunosuppressed would have the ability to get a primary jab, consistent with recommendation issued final month by the Joint Committee on Vaccine and Immunisation.
• Germany has reported 118,970 new infections, a 39% enhance on final week’s figures. It additionally reported {that a} additional 59 folks died after testing constructive for the virus.
• Russia has reported a report 121,228 new day by day instances of the virus. The federal government’s coronavirus taskforce additionally reported 617 deaths within the final 24 hours.
• Voting in underway in Portugal in a parliamentary election marred by fears of a low turnout as a result of report coronavirus infections. The federal government has allowed these contaminated to depart isolation and solid ballots in particular person, recommending that they achieve this within the final hour earlier than polling stations shut at 7pm.
• New instances in South Korea’s have hit a report 17,532 because the extremely infectious Omicron variant spreads. The day by day depend broke the report for the sixth consecutive day, risiing from 8,570 on Tuesday.

The UK’s overseas secretary, Liz Truss, has stopped wanting the federal government’s earlier dedication to publish the total report into alleged lockdown breaking events.

Chatting with the BBC’s Sunday Morning present, she stated: “It’s our intention to publish the total report.”

She additionally admitted: “It’s a little bit of a multitude that we’ve got the police investigation alongside the Sue Grey report”.

Requested if Boris Johnson ought to resign if it emerges he lied to parliament, Truss stated: “I’m not going to reply hypothetical questions. The way forward for the prime minister is assured.”

New instances in South Korea’s have hit a report 17,532 because the extremely infectious Omicron variant spreads, the Yonap information company stories.

The nation reported 17,532 new infections, together with 17,303 native instances, elevating the entire caseload to 828,637, the Korea Illness Management and Prevention Company stated.

The day by day depend broke the report for the sixth consecutive day, spiking from 8,570 on Tuesday.

Authorities had earlier stated Saturday’s tally reached 17,542 however corrected the determine to 17,526, citing faulty reporting.

Polling has begun in Portugal in a parliamentary election marred by fears of a low turnout as a result of report coronavirus infections, Reuters stories.

On the College of Lisbon, employees outnumbered principally aged voters, with indicators on the partitions asking folks to put on a masks, observe social distancing and to make use of their very own pen.

Some even wore gloves for further safety.

“I’ve been vaccinated, and I haven’t had Covid but … However I felt very protected,” stated Maria Odete, 73, including that the election race appeared too shut to provide a secure authorities able to bringing constructive change.

The federal government has allowed these contaminated to depart isolation and solid ballots in particular person, recommending that they achieve this within the final hour earlier than polling stations shut at 7pm.

Greater than a tenth of Portugal’s 10 million persons are estimated to be isolating due to Covid. As in lots of European nations, infections have spiked currently, stoked by the Omicron variant, though widespread vaccination has saved deaths and hospitalisations decrease than in earlier waves.

The election is broad open because the centre-left ruling Socialists have misplaced a lot of their lead in opinion polls to the primary opposition celebration, the centre-right Social Democrats, and neither is prone to win a secure majority.

Low turnout may make projections unreliable, analysts say. Abstention was already report at 51% within the 2019 common election earlier than the pandemic.

Ed Davey has accused the Metropolitan police of “undermining” the general public’s belief over the Sue Grey report into Downing Avenue lockdown events.

Talking on the BBC’s Sunday Morning present, the chief of the Liberal Democrats stated:

I’ve big respect for rank-and-file law enforcement officials who put their lives on the road to maintain us protected.

For them to do their job, the general public should have belief and confidence in them. However the way in which the Met has dealt with this, I believe, is undermining that.

Labour’s Lisa Nandy stated Grey’s report ought to be revealed “in full” this week. She informed the programme:

If (Boris Johnson) gained’t put an finish to this circus and this stasis in authorities … then that report has to come back out in full in order that the folks can choose for themselves.

Taiwan’s vp, William Lai, used his ultimate day within the US to repeat an accusation that China blocked the island from acquiring vaccines final yr, Reuters stories.

Final Could, the Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen accused China of blocking a take care of Germany’s BioNTech SE for vaccines, after Beijing supplied the photographs to the island through a Chinese language firm simply as Taiwan was coping with an increase in home infections.

Beijing has denied attempting to cease Taiwan getting vaccines, and in addition supplied Chinese language-developed photographs which the island rejected, citing security considerations.

China claims Taiwan as its personal territory.

Lower than two weeks after Tsai’s feedback, Senator Tammy Duckworth, visiting Taipei with two different US lawmakers, stated the US would donate vaccine doses to Taiwan.

Chatting with the Illinois Democrat throughout a stopover in San Francisco whereas on the way in which again to Taiwan from Honduras, Lai supplied his thanks.

Lai stated he was “particularly grateful to her final yr when Taiwan was unable to acquire vaccines as a result of China issue”, Taiwan’s presidential workplace stated, citing the de facto US ambassador to Washington Hsiao Bi-khim, who’s accompanying Lai.

In Beijing, China’s overseas ministry stated Lai’s accusation was “whole fiction”, calling it a “malicious slandering and smearing of the true face of the mainland”.

Taiwan ultimately started receiving the BioNTech vaccines, collectively developed with Pfizer, in September.

Thailand has reported an extra 8,444 new Covid instances and 12 deaths from the virus.

Cambodia has reported an extra 57 instances.

Beijing recorded its highest variety of new Covid-19 instances for a yr and a half on Sunday, because the Chinese language capital gears as much as host the Winter Olympics, AFP stories.

China will maintain the Video games in a strict “closed-loop” bubble as a part of its zero-Covid technique of focused lockdowns, border restrictions and prolonged quarantines.

The strategy has helped the world’s second-largest financial system preserve new infections far decrease than many different nations, however it’s battling native outbreaks in a number of cities in addition to within the Olympic bubble.

The upcoming lunar new yr – China’s greatest nationwide vacation – presents an extra problem as thousands and thousands of individuals return to their hometowns and mingle with household and pals.

Beijing’s tally of 20 new instances on Sunday was the town’s highest since June 2020, in keeping with the Nationwide Well being Fee (NHC).

Metropolis authorities have locked down some housing compounds, whereas officers in Fengtai district – the place most of Sunday’s infections had been detected – have begun testing about 2 million folks for the virus.

The Olympics bubble separates everybody concerned within the Video games from the broader Chinese language inhabitants to curb the chance of infections leaking out.

The estimated 60,000 folks contained in the bubble are topic to day by day testing.

On Sunday, organisers reported 34 new instances associated to the Video games, bringing the entire to greater than 200 for the reason that bubble was sealed on 4 January.

Russia reported a report 121,228 new day by day instances of the virus. That is up from Saturday’s whole of 113,122. The federal government coronavirus taskforce additionally reported 617 deaths within the final 24 hours.

Germany’s Robert Koch Institute has reported 118,970 new infections, a 39% enhance on final week’s figures. It additionally reported {that a} additional 59 folks died after testing constructive for the virus.

Welcome to a Sunday version of our coronavirus reside weblog.

The Winter Olympics in Beijing have been hit by 34 new infections amongst athletes and officers.

Poland’s quick observe medal hopeful Natalia Maliszewska is amongst those that examined constructive.

Of the entire infections, 23 had been amongst new airport arrivals, whereas 11 had been folks already within the “closed loop” bubble that separates occasion personnel from the general public in an effort to curb the unfold of infections.

Maliszewska is the eighth Polish athlete to have examined constructive and has gone into isolation, the Polish Olympic Committee stated on Sunday. She joins contaminated fellow speedskaters Natalia Czerwonka, Magdalena Czyszczoń and Marek Kania in isolation.

Beijing Video games organisers have warned of extra instances in coming days because the Chinese language capital enforces stringent measures, proscribing motion and get in touch with of any Video games participant with the native inhabitants.

In the meantime, within the UK, the NHS has introduced it’s going to start providing vaccinations to youngsters aged between 5 and 11 who’re most in danger from the virus.

Britain has been slower than another nations in providing the photographs to five- to 11-year-olds, and isn’t planning to vaccinate the age group extra broadly in contrast to nations such because the US and Israel.

NHS England stated youngsters within the cohort who had been in a scientific threat group or who reside with somebody who’s immunosuppressed would have the ability to get a primary jab, consistent with recommendation issued final month by the Joint Committee on Vaccine and Immunisation.