Coronavirus news live: Poland enters fifth Covid wave; Australia reports record daily death toll | World news

China has reported one other 171 new confirmed Covid-19 circumstances for Monday, 17 January, based on a lately launched assertion by the Nationwide Well being Fee.

The determine is down from 223 a day earlier, based on authorities data.

Of the brand new infections, 127 had been domestically transmitted, down from 163 a day earlier. The opposite new circumstances had been imported.

The brand new domestically transmitted circumstances had been in Henan, Tianjin, Guangdong, Beijing and Shaanxi, the NHC stated.

The nation additionally reported 33 new asymptomatic circumstances, which it classifies individually from confirmed circumstances, up from 28 infections a day earlier. There have been no new deaths, leaving the death toll at 4,636.

Poland is experiencing a fifth wave of Covid-19 infections, the well being minister stated on Monday, warning that the unfold of the Omicron variant may ship daily case numbers hovering to ranges not but seen within the nation.

Whereas daily case numbers have fallen since early December, the European Union’s largest jap member has had little respite because the fourth wave, frequently reporting over 10,000 new infections per day amid low vaccine take-up and restricted restrictions on public life.

“We predict that the height of infections will likely be in mid-February and that peak is about 60,000 circumstances a day,” Adam Niedzielski instructed a news convention.

The best variety of daily circumstances reported because the pandemic started was 35,251 on 1 April, 2021.

Niedzielski stated that he anticipated figures launched on Tuesday to point out in extra of 20,000 daily circumstances.

On Friday, 13 of the 17 members of Poland’s Medical Council advising the prime minister on Covid-19 resigned, condemning what they stated was an absence of scientific affect on coverage.

One of many members who resigned, Dr Konstanty Szuldrzynski, instructed TVN24 on Monday that the death fee in international locations the place stricter restrictions had been enforced had been decrease than in Poland, and that the fifth wave would put the well being service underneath monumental pressure.

“We’re going into the subsequent wave of Omicron fully unprepared,” he stated. “Please do not forget that the massive death fee in Poland is not only associated to the low proportion of vaccinated folks but additionally to the truth that we have now a really outdated well being system.”

The nation of round 38 million has up to now reported 4,323,482 circumstances of the coronavirus and 102,309 deaths.

Hiya it’s Samantha Lock with you on the weblog at the moment as we unpack all the newest Covid developments from internationally.

I’ll be reporting to you from Sydney and my colleagues from London will take over a bit later within the day.

Case numbers are simply coming in throughout Australia this morning, confirming the nation has hit a brand new bleak pandemic milestone. A record 74 deaths have been reported from the nation’s two most populous states of NSW and Victoria with 36 deaths and 22 deaths respectively. It’s the best daily toll of the pandemic for Australia so far.

The Omicron outbreak has continued to push up hospitalisation charges to record ranges with extra folks in hospitals and intensive care than at every other time throughout the pandemic at the same time as daily infections eased barely.

On the opposite facet of the world in Poland, the European Union’s largest jap member says it’s at present battling a fifth wave of Covid-19 infections, with circumstances anticipated to hit record ranges in coming weeks.

Well being minister Adam Niedzielski warned that the unfold of the Omicron variant may ship daily case numbers hovering to ranges not but seen within the nation.

“We predict that the height of infections will likely be in mid-February and that peak is about 60,000 circumstances a day,” he instructed a news convention on Monday.

Right here’s a complete run-down of all the newest international developments:

Europe:

• Covid booster pictures will likely be supplied to youngsters in England aged 12 to fifteen who’re most in danger from coronavirus, NHS England has stated. Individuals in England are additionally now in a position to finish their coronavirus isolation after 5 full days within the newest change to self-isolation steering.
• Greece has imposed a vaccination mandate for folks over age 60.
• The EU ought to proceed to droop strict fiscal guidelines to assist debt-mired international locations equivalent to Italy till the pandemic is over, the brand new chairman of the German parliament’s highly effective EU affairs committee has stated.
• A return to international pre-pandemic employment ranges may take years, a UN report revealed.
• French lecturers’ unions have referred to as for a second main strike this week to protest the federal government’s Covid testing and isolation protocols, which they are saying are severely disrupting courses.
• France’s parliament has given last approval to the federal government’s newest measures to deal with Covid-19, together with a vaccine go contested by anti-vaccine protesters.
• Uzbekistan has reported 1,037 new daily Covid circumstances, the best quantity on record.
• Kazakhstan reported a record 13,523 circumstances on Sunday, and the Kazakh authorities has introduced center and highschool college students within the nation’s three largest cities would research remotely till the tip of March.
• The chairman of Credit score Suisse, António Horta-Osório, has resigned after the Swiss financial institution reportedly discovered that he had damaged Covid-19 quarantine legal guidelines.

Asia:

• The variety of Covid-19 circumstances throughout China reached the best stage since March 2020 on Monday, because the nation reported a daily rise of 223 new infections.
• A number of cities in China are actually on a excessive Covid alert in preparation for the lunar new yr vacation journey season when tons of of tens of millions of individuals are anticipated to journey across the nation. Cities equivalent to Luoyang in central China and Jieyang within the south now require residents to report particulars of their journeys upfront.
• Chinese language authorities are urging residents to not order items from abroad, claiming a current Omicron an infection detected in Beijing got here from a global bundle despatched from Canada. There may be not a powerful scientific foundation to the declare, based on specialists.
• Beijing Winter Olympics tickets won’t be bought to basic public in newest Covid setback.
• Japan will carry ahead its Covid vaccination booster pictures by as a lot as two months whereas additionally contemplating inserting 11 prefectures, together with Tokyo and its surrounding space, underneath a quasi-state of emergency to curb a quickly accelerating sixth wave of infections.
• Hong Kong police have arrested and charged two Cathay Pacific flight attendants for allegedly contravening Covid rules.
• Thailand is contemplating bringing again a quarantine waiver for vaccinated guests, its well being minister stated on Monday, as a part of a proposed easing of some Covid measures later this week.

Americas:

• Travellers to Hawaii might quickly must have supplemented their vaccinations with a booster does with a purpose to go to the islands with out having to quarantine.

Center East:

• Israel cuts Covid isolation to 5 days for asymptomatic folks.

Medical:

• The chief government of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, has stated that whereas the coronavirus will proceed to flow into for a few years to come back, this present wave must be the final to must result in restrictions.
• Moderna is aiming to launch a single booster vaccination that can defend in opposition to each Covid-19 and flu inside two years, its chief government stated.
• A fourth shot of Covid vaccine raises antibodies to even greater ranges than the third jab however it isn’t sufficient to forestall Omicron infections, based on a preliminary research in Israel.
• Moderna CEO says knowledge for Omicron-specific jab seemingly out there in March.

Please be at liberty to get in contact with me when you’ve got a narrative or tricks to share. Your ideas are at all times welcome.

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Twitter: @Samantha__Lock