Health minister of France said the country could soon have around 100,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, as the new Omicron coronavirus variant continues to spread rapidly. The Omicron variant will be the dominant strain of the coronavirus in France by early January, he said.
Singapore said it will freeze all new ticket sales for flights and buses under its quarantine-free travel scheme for four weeks from Thursday. Citing the risk of the new Omicron coronavirus variant, the government said the move would buy time to strengthen its defences against COVID-19.
Australia ruled out a Christmas lockdown and renewed its vaccination push, as surging Omicron cases caused authorities to impose new curbs and expedite COVID-19 booster shots.
The US state of California said it would require health care workers to have a booster shot in preparation for a potential new wave of infections.
Japan confirms first known local omicron transmissions
Japan confirmed its first known local transmissions of the new omicron variant of the coronavirus in Osaka on Wednesday, a sign it is already making its way in the country.
The family of three in Osaka had no record of traveling overseas and their infections could not be traced, Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura said.
The three are the first known cases of community transmission of the highly infectious omicron variant in Japan, Yoshimura said. “I believe they only happened to be detected and we must take steps on the assumption that there already are other cases of community transmission,” he said.
South Africa’s case drop may show omicron peak has passed
South Africa’s noticeable drop in new COVID-19 cases in recent days may signal that the country’s dramatic omicron-driven surge has passed its peak, medical experts say.
After hitting a high of nearly 27,000 new cases nationwide last Thursday, the numbers dropped to about 15,424 on Tuesday. In Gauteng province – South Africa’s most populous with 16 million people, including the largest city, Johannesburg, and the capital, Pretoria – the decrease started earlier and has continued.
“The drop in new cases nationally combined with the sustained drop in new cases seen here in Gauteng province, which for weeks has been the center of this wave, indicates that we are past the peak,” Marta Nunes, senior researcher at the Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics department of the University of Witwatersrand.
UK says 14 deaths and 129 hospitalised by Omicron
There are currently 129 people in hospital with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus and so far 14 people have died with it, junior health minister Gillian Keegan said.
She also said the UK government would not hesitate to bring in further COVID-19 restrictions if the data showed it was necessary.
