New Coronavirus News from 20 Dec 2021

Crack Down Hard, or Wait and See? Europe Splits on Omicron Response. [The New York Times, 20 Dec 2021]

By Norimitsu Onishi and Nicholas Casey

As some nations impose tough restrictions in the face of soaring cases, others, including France, are lying back for the moment.

PARIS — The Dutch can now invite only two guests to their homes as part of a new lockdown. In Denmark, where masks and other social restrictions had all but disappeared thanks to a successful vaccination campaign, cinemas, amusement parks, zoos and other establishments are closed once again.

By contrast, France has ruled out lockdowns, curfews or closures on a continent where new Covid-19 rules are being announced every day in the face of the Omicron variant’s rapid spread. “The French exception,” the front page of one newspaper, Le Parisien, said on Monday.

For now, France — as well as Spain and, to a lesser extent, Italy — is betting that high vaccine and booster coverage, along with earlier restrictions it put in place, will be enough to keep the coronavirus variant manageable, adopting a wait-and-see attitude as a sense of urgency grips the Netherlands, Denmark and Britain.

The numbers show why.

In London, the number of Covid cases rose by 30 percent last week, and the mayor declared a “major incident” — an emergency status that frees up resources. Denmark is now recording more than 9,000 new cases daily, one of the highest infection rates in the world. And the Netherlands became the first country in Europe to return to a full lockdown amid fears that its relatively low number of I.C.U. beds would be overwhelmed.

Spain, Italy and France all have lower Covid cases per 100,000 people than some of their northern neighbors, at least for now.

Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of Global Health in Geneva, said that countries in northern Europe had “tended to be more proactive, in moving quickly in not wanting their hospitals to be overwhelmed.” For countries in the south, he said, restrictions and lockdowns are “always an act of last resort.”

In all the countries, economic and political concerns — just days before Christmas — are also guiding governments, amid uncertainty about just how big a risk the variant poses.
Epidemiologists have warned that even if Omicron is eventually shown to cause less severe illness, its rapid spread could still send huge numbers of people to hospitals.

The warnings recall some of the most uncertain moments early in the pandemic, with surging case numbers leaving European nations with the prospect of a second consecutive Christmas clouded by lockdown-like measures, travel bans and fears of rationed health care.

Governments are accelerating booster shots as the scientific evidence accumulates that two vaccine doses are insufficient to stop infection, though the vaccines appear to reduce the risk of hospitalization and serious illness. The United States is carefully watching Britain and Denmark for clues of what might happen at home, since both countries are good at tracking variants.

In France, the government said that Omicron was now estimated to have caused hundreds of cases, and that it would be the dominant variant by early next month. An average of 52,471 coronavirus cases per day were reported in France in the last week, according to a New York Times database, up 23 percent from the average two weeks ago.

The government of President Emmanuel Macron has encouraged vaccinations by issuing health passes to people who receive shots, and has managed to keep schools and most establishments open. More than 70 percent of the French population has received two doses, though some six million have yet to receive a single shot.

Fresh restrictions would chip away at that success just four months before presidential elections.

The government is focused on tightening restrictions on unvaccinated people in the new year by making France’s health pass contingent on getting vaccinated. Currently, people can also obtain a pass with a recent negative Covid test.

The government has also shortened the wait before people can receive a booster shot to four months, from five. So far, about 17.5 million people have had boosters, or about 36 percent of the population that had received two doses.

The Coronavirus Pandemic: Latest Updates

“It’s annoying, but this year there’s at least more of a Christmas spirit than last year, when we had a curfew,” said Sherryline Ramos, a student in communications who was strolling with a friend along the Champs-Élysées in Paris. “We couldn’t go out and enjoy Christmas decorations.’’

In Spain, there has also been little appetite to return to the restrictions that became common during previous waves of the virus. Such a move, ahead of the Christmas holiday, is considered both politically and economically treacherous.

Last week, officials raised the country’s alert level, and they now report 50 infections per 100,000 people, the steepest rate in months. But on Monday, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez signaled a wait-and-see approach, noting that hospitalizations remained lower than elsewhere in Europe and that the vaccines appeared to be doing their job.

“With notably higher contagion figures, we have lower hospitalization and intensive care occupation than a year ago,” he said. “The first conclusion is that vaccination works and that this health crisis can only be stopped by science.”

Medical experts agree that Spain’s high vaccination rates have set it apart from other European countries. More than 80 percent of the country is fully vaccinated.

But some in the public health community expressed reservations about the government’s current approach. Rafael Vilasanjuan, the policy director of ISGlobal, a public health think tank in Barcelona, said that as countries in northern Europe move urgently to try to slow the variant, Spain could be losing valuable time in getting ahead of it.

The Coronavirus Pandemic: Key Things to Know

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The latest Covid data in the U.S. As the Omicron surge caused case counts to reach record highs and hospitalizations to surpass last winter’s peak, here’s what the data suggests about the variant’s potential toll. Reports of falling infection rates in parts of the U.S., meanwhile, hint that a national peak may be approaching.

The U.S. Covid response. President Biden announced that the U.S. government would deploy military personnel to help overwhelmed hospitals and buy 500 million more tests for distribution to Americans, doubling its previous purchase. Americans will be able to order free rapid tests online beginning Jan. 15.

Around the world. Some European countries have changed their approach to the virus to more closely align with how they handle the flu. Public health experts say the shift might be premature. Outbreaks in China weeks ahead of the Winter Olympics underscored the challenges of holding the Games while sticking to a “zero Covid” policy.

Staying safe. Worried about spreading Covid? Keep yourself and others safe by following some basic guidance on when to test and how to use at-home virus tests (if you can find them). Here is what to do if you test positive for the coronavirus.

“We’re not in the situation where we can think the vaccine is enough,” he said. “We can eventually be in the same situation as others with hospitalizations.”

Mr. Vilasanjuan said the country should be considering a number of measures that other nations have adopted, including instituting a national vaccine passport and more forcefully pushing citizens to avoid large meetings, even during the holidays. He noted that while Omicron numbers had not surged yet to the levels seen in some other countries, they had risen in cities like Barcelona, where they now account for nearly a third of P.C.R. tests in some hospitals.

José Martínez Olmos, a former Spanish health official who works now as a professor at the Andalusian School of Public Health in Granada, said that voluntary measures might not be enough in the long term. He said the government might soon need to impose new restrictions on public activities, like limiting capacity in restaurants, hotels and theaters, and reducing their hours of operation.

And, as hard as it might be to enforce in Spain, the government needs to encourage limits on Christmas activities, Mr. Olmos said. “They need to recommend that people going to Christmas dinners try to be inside as little as possible, because social interactions are the key risk,” he said.

In Italy, the government is considering imposing new measures amid concerns over Omicron, but Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Monday that a final decision had not been made.

The government has made the vaccination campaign a national priority.

In October, Italy became the first major European country to require a “Green Pass” for all workers. Since then it has continued to tighten restrictions for the unvaccinated. As of last week, people traveling to Italy from other European countries must show recent negative rapid tests and proof of vaccination or recovery, or else they may be quarantined.

Omicron’s rapid spread — especially in Britain and Denmark, two countries with high vaccination rates — has alarmed many experts.

Denmark lifted all social restrictions in early September after a successful vaccination campaign. But last week, in addition to closing a host of public venues, the government banned the serving of alcohol from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. and required a valid vaccine passport for travel aboard intercity buses and trains.

In the Netherlands, concerns over Omicron’s effects on the health care system pushed the government over the weekend to order the closure of all but essential businesses until the second week of January. The number of guests allowed into people’s homes was limited to two, though four will be allowed on Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

Michel de Blaeij, 33, who lives in Terneuzen, a city in the south of the Netherlands, said he supported the measures, but he was critical of what he considers the government’s lack of clarity and consistency. The government’s decision to send schoolchildren home on Christmas vacation a week early had left many parents scrambling, he said.

“You just don’t know where you stand,” he said, adding, “The general mood is frustration right now.”

Norimitsu Onishi reported from Paris and Nick Casey from Madrid. Reporting was contributed by Claire Moses and Shashank Bengali from London, Jasmina Nielsen from Copenhagen, José Bautista from Madrid, Elisabetta Povoledo from Rome, and Léontine Gallois, Constant Méheut and Aurélien Breeden from Paris.

Cruise ship returns to Miami with 48 cases of COVID-19 [WION, 20 Dec 2021]

By Johnny Diaz

Dozens of passengers and crew members aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship tested positive for COVID-19 last week, according to the cruise line.

Royal Caribbean International said in a statement that the ship, the Symphony of the Seas, was carrying more than 6,000 guests and crew members when 48 people onboard tested positive.
The ship departed Dec. 11 for a seven-night Caribbean cruise and returned to port in Miami on Saturday, the company said.

The cases were identified because of contact tracing after a guest tested positive, the cruise line said.

“Each person quickly went into quarantine,” the statement said. “Everyone who tested positive was asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, and we continuously monitored their health.”

The cruise line said that the ship sailed with 95% of its guests aboard fully vaccinated and that 98% of the people who tested positive were fully vaccinated. It was not immediately clear whether any of the people who tested positive had received a booster shot of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Also read | Iran witnesses rare anti-government protest after execution of Kurdish prisoner
Royal Caribbean requires travelers 12 and older to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and test negative before boarding the ship. Children who are not yet vaccinated must provide a negative PCR test result before sailing and test negative at the terminal before boarding.

The company said that all its crew members were full vaccinated against COVID-19 and were tested weekly.

During the early days of the pandemic in 2020, outbreaks on cruise ships sickened hundreds of people and upended the tourism industry, as officials and companies struggled to keep crews and passengers safe.

For months, cruise ships were barred from sailing to many ports. Even after vaccinations became more widely available in the United States in April, allowing much of the travel industry to ramp up again, cruise ships remained docked in ports, costing the industry billions of dollars each month.

The cruise industry rebounded in the summer, with many companies reporting an increase in bookings and a better handle on COVID-19 protocols.

But a recent spike in COVID cases in parts of the United States and Europe and growing concerns over the omicron variant may hinder that momentum.

This month, at least 17 coronavirus cases were identified on a Norwegian Breakaway cruise ship that docked in New Orleans, including a case of the new omicron variant.

EDITORIAL | How Biden needs to help fight omicron [Minneapolis Star Tribune, 20 Dec 2021]

He can start by easing access to high-quality masks, rapid tests, vaccines and COVID treatments.

Meteorologists don't wait until a tornado is on the ground to issue watches and warnings. Alarms sound when conditions are right for violent weather, giving those in its path time to seek shelter and secure their homes.

The same batten-down-the-hatches approach is required for COVID's new, highly infectious omicron variant. While there are mixed signals about whether it causes milder illness, the uncertainty and the hurricane-force ferocity with which it has spread merit urgent action from individuals and political leaders. Testing before holiday gatherings (and not going if positive) is especially prudent.

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden is expected to address a pandemic-weary nation about omicron's threat. He needs to do far more than simply urge Americans to get vaccinated and boosted. What's needed are specifics about how the federal government will leverage its authority and vast resources to help Americans individually do their part.

Here are some key questions Biden should answer:
Booster availability. Only about 30% of the U.S. population has gotten a COVID booster. That's troubling when protection provided by having had COVID or the regular vaccine series is less robust against omicron infection. Boosters restore it, but they are needed swiftly before omicron's spread. Unfortunately, appointments can be hard to find. What is the plan to ease access?

Vaccine uptake. Slightly more than 65% of Americans eligible for the shot (essentially those 5 and up) are fully vaccinated. That leaves far too many at risk of hospitalization and death, especially with the delta strain still circulating. Additional action is needed to spur vaccinations and boosters. The Star Tribune Editorial Board has argued that requiring vaccinations for air travel would act as an incentive. Will the Biden administration take this sensible step?

Testing. If Americans could find out quickly that they have COVID, they could act to check viral spread. Minnesota's community testing program provides far more options (at no-cost) than most states. But the convenience of rapid, at-home tests is hard to beat. These are currently sold over the counter but can be hard to find. In addition, a two-test package of BinaxNOW or other brands often costs $20-$25. Authorities should mail free tests to households or make them available for free at post offices or drugstores.

COVID treatments. Monoclonal antibodies, a mainstay treatment once someone is infected, may not work as well against omicron. The welcome exception appears to be sotrovimab, but supplies could be challenging. Federal authorities should push to boost production. Antiviral pills in development, particularly Paxlovid from Pfizer, could help reduce severe illness in those infected. Now would be a good time to expedite approval and ensure adequate supplies.

Masking. Wider use of more effective high-filtration masks, such as N95s, could help halt viral spread. Provide them at no-cost to consumers by mail or other methods.

State and local governments shouldn't stand idly by. They could help with mask and at-home rapid test supplies, for example. A temporary mask requirement for indoor public and commercial spaces would also be timely and beneficial. Gov. Tim Walz and the Minnesota Legislature should put this in place. If not, cities and counties could act.

Policies easing access to high-quality masks, tests and vaccinations or boosters are essential as omicron makes landfall. Biden should clearly outline how his administration will help responsible Americans who want to protect themselves, their families and communities.

UK says COVID-19 surge 'extremely difficult' as Omicron grips Europe [CNA, 20 Dec 2021]

LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday (Dec 20) he would tighten coronavirus curbs to slow the spread of the Omicron variant if needed, after the Netherlands began a fourth lockdown and as other European nations consider Christmas restrictions.

Speaking after UK media reported Britain might impose new curbs after Christmas, Johnson said the situation was "extremely difficult" and hospitalisations were rising steeply in London.

"I have to say to the British public, and I say to everybody, we will not exclude the possibility of going further if we have to do things to protect the public," Johnson said after a cabinet meeting.

Omicron infections are multiplying rapidly across Europe and the United States, doubling every two or three days in London and elsewhere and taking a heavy toll on financial markets, which fear the impact on the global economic recovery.

The variant was first detected last month in southern Africa and Hong Kong and so far been reported in at least 89 countries. The severity of illness it causes remains unclear.

Any limits on Christmas celebrations would come at a high political cost for Johnson, already under fire over reports he and his staff broke lockdown rules last year.

Asked about speculation the government would ban indoor socialising and limit tourism, Johnson said: "We're looking at all kinds of things ... we will rule nothing out."

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced a shutdown on Saturday, ordering the closure of all but essential stores, as well as restaurants, hairdressers, gyms, museums and other public places until at least Jan 14.

Germany plans to limit private gatherings from Dec 28 to a maximum of 10 people who have been vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19, according to a draft of proposed steps. The document also said access to restaurants would remain limited to people who could provide proof of vaccination or recovery.

Ireland on Friday ordered bars and restaurants to close at 8pm and reduced the capacity in all public events. Italy is also considering new measures, newspapers reported on Sunday.

'RAGING THROUGH THE WORLD'
Coronavirus cases surged in New York City and around the United States over the weekend, dashing hopes for a more normal holiday season and stretching the country's testing infrastructure just days before Christmas.

In Washington DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser said the city would reinstate an indoor mask mandate beginning on Tuesday and running until the morning of Jan 31. All employees, contractors and grantees of the District of Columbia government must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and have a booster shot, she said.

In Geneva, World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Omicron is spreading faster than the Delta variant and causing infections in people already vaccinated or who have recovered from COVID-19.

China, where the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus was first detected in late 2019, must be more forthcoming with information about its origin, Tedros said. "We need to continue until we know the origins. We need to push harder because we should learn from what happened this time in order to (do) better in the future."

WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said it was too early to conclude Omicron is milder than prior versions of the virus, adding that it could still make enough people sick to "overburden" healthcare systems.

Many monoclonal drugs "will not work with Omicron," she said of the infused treatment used to lessen disease severity of COVID-19 patients.

Monoclonal antibody drugs deliver lab-made versions of the body's natural antibodies to fight infection, while vaccines spur the body to make its own antibodies and build its own immunity.

Wall Street's main indexes opened lower on Monday, dragged down by concerns about the impact of tighter COVID-19 curbs on the global economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 500 points, or nearly 1.5 per cent in afternoon trading.

European stocks were down 1.33 per cent. Shopper numbers across Britain's high streets fell 2.6 per cent over the Dec 18-19 weekend versus the previous weekend, researcher Springboard said.

Last week, the European Central Bank cut its euro zone growth forecast for next year to 4.2 per cent from 4.6 per cent previously, citing the pandemic among "headwinds".

ECB President Christine Lagarde said, even if economies were learning to adapt to living with COVID-19, tighter restrictions could delay the recovery.

Israel added the United States to its "no-fly" list, citing concerns over the Omicron variant. US infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci said Omicron was "raging through the world" as he urged Americans to get booster shots.

Booster shots, on top of two-shot vaccinations, appear critical to fighting the variant. Moderna said a booster dose of its vaccine seemed to be protective against Omicron in laboratory testing, and the current version of the shot would remain Moderna’s "first line of defence".

More than 274 million people have been reported to be infected by the coronavirus globally since the pandemic began. More than 5.65 million people have died.

The World Economic Forum on Monday postponed its annual meeting in Davos due to the spread of Omicron, putting off the event scheduled for January until mid-2022.

New Coronavirus News from 16 Dec 2021

Korea’s Movie Industry Warns of Collapse as COVID Restrictions Return [Variety, 16 Dec 2021]

By Patrick Frater

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” has achieved pandemic-era records in its first two days in Korean cinemas. But Korean theater operators are warning of industry “collapse” as the country adopts revived anti-COVID measures on Saturday.

The new measures were announced on Thursday and mean a return of social distancing measures and restrictions for a minimum of two weeks. These include a maximum of four people in restaurants, a 9 p.m. curfew for bars and clubs, and a 10 p.m. curfew in cinemas and concert venues.

Film distributors have responded by delaying the planned release of some titles. Cinemas have reacted by rescheduling screenings this weekend and reimbursing some pre-sold tickets.

That is certain to mean a slowing of the blistering box office pace seen by “Spider-Man” in its first two days. The film, which has a running time of nearly two and a half hours, sold 635,000 tickets on its Wednesday debut with a gross value of $5.27 million, according to data from the Kobis tracking service. On Thursday, it added a further 391,000 tickets worth $3.29 million.

Film trade organizations including the Producers Guild of Korea, Directors Guild of Korea, The Association of Korean Buyers & Distributors of Foreign Films in Korea, Screenwriters Guild of Korea and Korea Theater Association, published a joint statement on Thursday asking the government to rethink the measures.

They argue that cinemas are not significant health hazards, and that the film industry has been particularly badly hit by the previous anti-COVID measures. Restrictions were only loosened a few weeks ago at the beginning of November.

“Movie theaters have been actively pursuing preventive measures much stricter than what the government has required to provide a safe environment [for audiences to see the films],” the statement said. “The damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic over the last two years is growing uncontrollably. The operating limits [night time curfews] for movie theaters hinder new films from being released and will spread to the industry itself, ultimately leading to its collapse like a domino effect.”

The new restrictions weigh on the planned release of Hollywood films including Warner Bros.’ “The Matrix Resurrections” and Disney’s “The King’s Man,” which are both scheduled to debut next Wednesday.

Several local films have also announced disruptions. Political thriller “The Kingmaker” has canceled its Dec. 29 outing and instead is aiming for a late January start. Action thriller “Emergency Declaration” has ditched its early January release and has not announced a new date. Crime action film “Special Delivery” shifted its launch date from Jan. 5 to Jan. 12, hoping that the restrictions will only be short-lived.

November’s brief interlude between restrictions gave cinemas a glimmer of hope. Aggregate November 2021 grosses reached KRW66 billion ($55 million), roughly double that of November 2020, but only 42% of pre-COVID in 2019. Korea’s annual box office total remains at roughly 2020 levels.

New Coronavirus News from 17 Dec 2021

Covid-19: Omicron spreading at lightning speed - French PM [BBC News, 17 Dec 2021]

The Omicron variant is "spreading at lightning speed" in Europe and will likely become dominant in France by the start of next year, French Prime Minister Jean Castex has warned.

He spoke on Friday, hours before France imposed strict travel restrictions on those entering from the United Kingdom.

The UK has so far been the hardest hit in the region, with nearly 15,000 confirmed Omicron cases on Friday.

Across the continent, health officials are bracing for a wave of infections.
Additional restrictions were announced in Germany, the Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands on Friday as governments seek to stem the tide.

Europe has already seen more than 89 million cases and 1.5 million Covid-related deaths, according to the latest EU figures.

But Germany's Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told reporters on Friday the country "must prepare for a challenge that we have not yet had in this form", while its public health agency designated France, Norway and Denmark as "high risk" due to rising infections in those countries. Germany itself reported more than 42,000 cases on Saturday, down from 50,000 new infections recorded on Friday.

In Ireland, where a third of new cases have been due to the new variant, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said they were expecting "to see infections at a rate that is far in excess of anything we have seen to date".

The warnings came as the UK reported a record number of Covid infections for a third day in a row - more than 93,000 - largely driven by Omicron.

France closed its borders to people travelling from the UK for business or tourism at 23:00 GMT on Friday, with huge queues forming at the Port of Dover and Eurostar terminals as people tried to enter before the ban came into effect.

It is not the only country tightening its controls. Earlier this week, Italy, Greece and Portugal announced that visitors from the EU will need to present a negative test result on arrival - even those who have been vaccinated.

Speaking hours before the new rules came in, Mr Castex said the travel restrictions were part of a series of measures being brought in to stem the tide of infections.

They include shortening the gap between the second and third dose of vaccine, and requiring a full vaccination to enter restaurants and long-distance public transport.

Additionally, all official New Years Eve celebrations and firework displays have been cancelled.
Mr Castex also said the government would announce new steps to tackle vaccine hesitancy next year, saying it was "not acceptable that the refusal of a few million French people to be vaccinated puts the life of an entire country at risk".

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, Dutch health experts have said the country should go into a "strict" lockdown, local media has reported.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte has said Omicron could be the country's dominant strain by January, similar to France.

Since late November, bars, restaurants and most shops have been ordered to close between 17:00 and 05:00 local time. This measure was meant to end before Christmas, but will now continue until 14 January.

The Netherlands recorded more than 15,400 infections on Friday - less than previous days, but far higher overall than any other time during the pandemic.

As the Dutch healthcare system deals with an influx of Covid patients, routine care and all but urgent operations have been postponed.

The hospitality industry in the Republic of Ireland has said it will be devastated by new rules from Monday that mean pubs, restaurants, theatres and cinemas must close every night by 20:00 local time.

The move has also been criticised by some politicians from Ireland's governing coalition, who said the new rules would encourage more gatherings in people's homes.

Sports venues will have to operate at 50% capacity or have attendance numbers capped at 5,000. Wedding celebrations will be allowed to go on until midnight - with a maximum of 100 guests.

There is already a limit of four households allowed to socialise together inside a home.

Tánaiste (Irish deputy PM) Leo Varadkar said the government would announce financial measures on Monday to support businesses affected by the new rules.

South Korea’s restaurants despair amid ‘living with COVID’ U-turn [Al Jazeera English, 17 Dec 2021]

By Morten Soendergaard Larsen

Authorities have reintroduced restricted hours for restuarants, cafes and bars amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.

[Correction
An earlier version of this article said small businesses were eligible for government payments of 100 million won ($84,000). The correct amount is 1 million won ($840).]

Seoul, South Korea – Only weeks after South Korea launched its “living with COVID” drive to return to normal life, small business owners like Lee Kyuna are feeling the pressure all over again.

From Saturday until at least January 2, Lee will be forced to close her restaurant by 9pm each day under a business curfew introduced to blunt a record surge in coronavirus cases.

The owner of Kantina, a restaurant in a quiet residential area of Seoul, is still recovering from the impact of the last round of restrictions, which only lifted on November 1.

“The revenue says it all – 40 percent drop,” Lee told Al Jazeera. “Seriously. Normally I would have customers until 12 or 1am on Fridays and Saturdays. But that just all stopped.”

Lee’s restaurant is among the 2.7 million small businesses in South Korea feeling the pain of pandemic restrictions, the latest of which includes a curfew for restaurants, cafes, bars and cinemas, and a ban on private gatherings of more than four people.

Although South Korea’s economy has weathered the pandemic better than many of its peers – growing an estimated 4 percent in 2021 on the back of strong exports and rebound of the global economy – mom-and-pop businesses have been hit with repeated rounds of restrictions on their business hours.

In September, business owners took to the streets to protest the curfews and restrictions, which organisers said had resulted in the permanent closure of 453,000 businesses during the pandemic.

Nine-ninety percent of enterprises in Korea are considered small and medium businesses, employing 83 percent of the workforce, according to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

The latest restrictions come despite South Korea having one of the world’s highest vaccination rates, with more than 80 percent of the total population doubled-jabbed.

Chuck Chun, who runs an American-style restaurant in central Seoul, told Al Jazeera the business environment had forced him to adjust plans to open an outlet at another location.

“We ended up opening up another restaurant as a delivery kitchen, that was our pivot,” Chun said. “When we have less in-house customers here, the deliveries there go up, but it never makes up for people actually coming in.”

“People stay here a few hours, and they drink, and they eat, and they continue to drink,” Chun added. “We’re losing out on all of that business. And on top of that, we’re paying a 30 percent, fee [on deliveries], so yes, it’s helpful, because it’s helping us keep our head above water. But it’s not worth it.”

Minister of SMEs and Startups Kwon Chil-seung announced on Friday that businesses affected by the latest rules would be eligible for payments of 1 million Korean won ($840) each by no later than February.

The financial support comes on top of billions of dollars the government has already spent on pandemic relief, including a 310 trillion won ($261.59bn) package last year that included low-interest loans and emergency grants for small businesses.

“Everybody is expecting a gloomy New Year, we’re expecting a lot of civil complaints about getting paid,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups told Al Jazeera.

“Some might not be satisfied, but the amount will be higher than last time.”

Lee Doo-won, a macroeconomy professor at Yonsei University, told Al Jazeera the economy was feeling the strain despite relatively strong gross domestic product (GDP) figures on paper.

“After the vaccination program began early this year, the number of infected people decreased rapidly. So, there was a fairly optimistic view about consumption and investment,” Lee said.

“But then we had the Delta variant sometime in the middle of this summer and then another one, the Omicron variant. So, consumption is not picking up as fast as we expected.”

‘Sinking boat’
For Lee, the restaurant owner in Seoul, the latest restrictions have left her considering her options if her business goes under.

“I will have to think of a plan B or C,” she said. “Maybe get my deposit back from my apartment and live with my parents again. It could be any day really if I try plan B and it doesn’t work, in the next months I’ll move in with them.”

While Lee is angry, she hopes to redirect that energy in a positive direction after switching up her menu from Japanese-style chicken, which mostly attracted late-night revellers, to Mediterranean food.

“I wanted to cook and serve people what I’m really enthusiastic about and what I’m passionate about, and my passion was in Mediterranean food,” she said. “The pandemic kind of gave me the opportunity to do something that I really like. I had to kind of find something that I could pursue and put my energy on instead of just be a sinking boat.”

New Coronavirus News from 27 Nov 2021b

Heavily mutated Omicron variant puts scientists on alert [Nature.com, 27 Nov 2021]

By Ewen Callaway

Researchers are racing to determine whether a fast-spreading coronavirus variant poses a threat to COVID vaccines’ effectiveness.

Researchers in South Africa are racing to track the concerning rise of a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The variant harbours a large number of the mutations found in other variants, including Delta, and it seems to be spreading quickly across South Africa.

A top priority is to follow the variant more closely as it spreads: it was first identified in Botswana earlier this month and has since turned up in a traveller arriving in Hong Kong from South Africa. Scientists are also trying to understand the variant’s properties, such as whether it can evade immune responses triggered by vaccines and whether it causes more or less severe disease than other variants do.

“We’re flying at warp speed,” says Penny Moore, a virologist at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, whose lab is gauging the variant’s potential to dodge immunity from vaccines and previous infections. There are anecdotal reports of reinfections and of cases in vaccinated individuals, but “at this stage it’s too early to tell anything”, Moore adds.

“There’s a lot we don’t understand about this variant,” Richard Lessells, an infectious-diseases physician at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, said at a press briefing organized by South Africa’s health department on 25 November. “The mutation profile gives us concern, but now we need to do the work to understand the significance of this variant and what it means for the response to the pandemic.”

On 26 November, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated the strain, known as B.1.1.529, as a variant of concern and named it Omicron, on the advice of scientists who are part of the WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution. Omicron joins Delta, Alpha, Beta and Gamma on the current WHO list of variants of concern.

Researchers also want to measure the variant’s potential to spread globally — possibly sparking new waves of infection or exacerbating ongoing rises being driven by Delta.

Changes to spike
Researchers spotted B.1.1.529 in genome-sequencing data from Botswana. The variant stood out because it contains more than 30 changes to the spike protein — the SARS-CoV-2 protein that recognizes host cells and is the main target of the body’s immune responses. Many of the changes have been found in variants such as Delta and Alpha, and are linked to heightened infectivity and the ability to evade infection-blocking antibodies.

The apparent sharp rise in cases of the variant in South Africa’s Gauteng province — home to Johannesburg — is also setting off alarm bells. Cases increased rapidly in the province in November, particularly in schools and among young people, according to Lessells. Genome sequencing and other genetic analysis from a team led by Tulio de Oliveira, a bioinformatician at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, found that the B.1.1.529 variant was responsible for all 77 of the virus samples they analysed from Gauteng, collected between 12 and 20 November. Analysis of hundreds more samples are in the works.

The variant harbours a spike mutation that allows it to be detected by genotyping tests that deliver results much more rapidly than genome sequencing does, Lessells said. Preliminary evidence from these tests suggest that B.1.1.529 has spread considerably further than Gauteng. “It gives us concern that this variant may already be circulating quite widely in the country,” Lessells said.

Vaccine effectiveness
To understand the threat B.1.1.529 poses, researchers will be closely tracking its spread in South Africa and beyond. Researchers in South Africa mobilized efforts to quickly study the Beta variant, identified there in late 2020, and a similar effort is starting to study B.1.1.529.

Moore’s team — which provided some of the first data on Beta’s ability to dodge immunity — has already begun work on B.1.1.529. They plan to test the virus’s ability to evade infection-blocking antibodies, as well as other immune responses. The variant harbours a high number of mutations in regions of the spike protein that antibodies recognize, potentially dampening their potency. “Many mutations we know are problematic, but many more look like they are likely contributing to further evasion,” says Moore. There are even hints from computer modelling that B.1.1.529 could dodge immunity conferred by another component of the immune system called T cells, says Moore. Her team hopes to have its first results in two weeks.

“A burning question is ‘does it reduce vaccine effectiveness, because it has so many changes?’,” says Aris Katzourakis, who studies virus evolution at the University of Oxford, UK. Moore says breakthrough infections have been reported in South Africa among people who have received any of the three kinds of vaccines in use there, from Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer–BioNTech and Oxford–AstraZeneca. Two quarantined travellers in Hong Kong who have tested positive for the variant were vaccinated with the Pfizer jab, according to news reports. One individual had travelled from South Africa; the other was infected during hotel quarantining.

Researchers in South Africa will also study whether B.1.1.529 causes disease that is more severe or milder than that produced by other variants, Lessells said. “The really key question comes around disease severity.”

So far, the threat B.1.1.529 poses beyond South Africa is far from clear, researchers say. It is also unclear whether the variant is more transmissible than Delta, says Moore, because there are currently low numbers of COVID-19 cases in South Africa. “We’re in a lull,” she says. Katzourakis says that countries where Delta is highly prevalent should be watching for signs of B.1.1.529. “We need to see what this virus does in terms of competitive success and whether it will increase in prevalence.”

Nature 600, 21 (2021)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03552-w

The Omicron variant upends the global pandemic response. [The New York Times, 27 Nov 2021]

By Isabella Grullón Paz

Britain, Israel and others announced new restrictions as some health experts urged caution.

Governments around the world reintroduced restrictive measures as scientists raced to study a new coronavirus variant and several cases were spotted in Europe days after it was first detected in southern Africa.

Omicron, a new variant first detected in Botswana, sent Europe into high alert after cases were detected in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Belgium. The Czech Republic, Austria, Israel and the Netherlands were all investigating suspected cases of the variant.

Relatively little is known about Omicron. It has mutations that scientists fear could make it more infectious and less susceptible to vaccines — though neither of these effects is yet to be established. Most confirmed cases of the variant are contained to southern African countries, but there are worries the virus could have spread more widely before scientists there discovered it.

“There’s been a window of probably about two weeks conservatively that this virus has been spreading,” Andrew Pekosz, an epidemiologist from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said in an interview on Saturday. It is likely the variant is already in New York, he said.

“There certainly is a chance that it has already spread globally, but we just don’t know yet,” Mr. Pekosz added.

European leaders, already struggling with a surge in Covid-19 cases that has made it once again the epicenter of the pandemic, tried to strike a balance between increasing caution and avoiding panic.

Sixty-one passengers out of more than 500 on two flights from southern African countries into the Netherlands on Saturday tested positive for the coronavirus and are quarantining in Amsterdam. The Omicron variant is likely to be found in some of those 61 passengers who tested positive, the Dutch authorities said.

The European Union is restricting travel to and from seven countries in southern Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, while the United States and South Korea have targeted those countries and Malawi. Britain initially restricted travel from those eight nations before adding Angola, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia to its red list.

Canada, Australia, Russia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Morocco have all announced similar restrictions.

Israel said Saturday it would close its borders to foreign nationals for two weeks.

In a news conference on Saturday evening, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that to curb the spread of the variant, face masks would be required in stores and on public transportation, a rule the country had ended in July.

Britain will also require travelers from abroad to get a PCR test within 48 hours of their arrival and require contacts of those who test positive with a suspected case of Omicron to self-isolate for 10 days, regardless of vaccination status.

The variant was also detected in Hong Kong, which prompted “the most stringent boarding and quarantine requirements” for travelers coming from southern African countries.

“I think certainly caution is warranted to restrict travel and to watch this closely, but at the end of the day, we really need a lot more data to evaluate this new variant,” Philip A. Chan, an infectious disease doctor at Brown University who has helped lead the Covid-19 response for Rhode Island, said.

What we do know, he said, is that the Omicron variant seems to be overtaking the Delta variant in southern African countries, which suggest Omicron is more contagious and that it can overcome some of the natural immunity and vaccine immunity.

“Neither one of those things are good, obviously. And I think that those are the two reasons that have experts and scientists so concerned,” Dr. Chan said. But he still “urges caution and patience.”

“Let’s wait to see what the data shows. Let’s take appropriate precautions,” he said.

Dr. Chan also cautioned that without a robust global vaccination effort, “we are half-treating the pandemic” and leaving the world open to new and more transmittable variants.

Expert urges vigilance over Omicron COVID variant [ABS-CBN News, 27 Nov 2021]

By Aleta Nieva Nishimori,

MANILA— An infectious disease expert on Saturday urged the public to remain vigilant and strictly adhere to health protocols amid the possible threat of a more highly transmissible COVID-19 variant first detected in South Africa.

“Alam na natin na 'yung Delta mataas ang transmissibility kaya maraming na-admit, marami rin nagkakasakit na naging severe. If this virus ganito kadami ng mutation we presume that the behavior of this virus is more transmissible compared to Delta,” said Dr. Rontgene Solante.
(We know that Delta has a high transmissibility rate that’s why many were admitted and many developed severe illness. We presume that, because of the mutations [in the Omicron variant] the behavior of this virus is more transmissible compared to Delta.)

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday classified the B.1.1.529 variant detected in South Africa as a SARS-CoV-2 "variant of concern," saying it may spread more quickly than other forms.

“Obserbahan natin kung talaga bang deadly ito dahil ang information natin is this virus is very highly transmissible,” said Solante.

(Let’s observe if this is going to be deadly because based on our information this virus is very highly transmissible.)

Preliminary evidence on the new variant suggest there is an increased risk of reinfection and there had been a "detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology," the WHO said in a statement after a closed meeting of independent experts who reviewed the data.

The B.1.1.529 variant has a "very unusual constellation" of mutations, which are concerning because they could help it evade the body's immune response and make it more transmissible, scientists said this week.

With the threat of the variant, the Philippine government acted swiftly by suspending inbound flights from South Africa and six other countries amid the presence of the B.1.1.1529 COVID-19 variant there. The suspension will be imposed until Dec. 15

“They evaluated fully, nakita nila gaano kadelikado itong mutation sa isang virus na more or less highly transmissible over that of Delta so I think that’s the clincher there na talagang nag-declare kaagad ng border control sa mga bansang meron nang Omicron,” said Solante.

(They evaluated and saw how dangerous this mutation is that is more or less highly transmissible over that of Delta so I think that was the clincher there for them to impose border control on countries where Omicron is present.)

Aside from South Africa, the suspension of inbound international flights covers Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, and Mozambique.

The Bureau of Quarantine has been directed to locate travelers from the mentioned countries who may have arrived in the recent 7 days prior to the temporary suspension of inbound travel. The travelers will be required to undergo 2-week quarantine with a mandatory RT-PCR test on the 7th day.

Solante advised all travelers, not only those coming from South Africa, to report to local authorities and have themselves tested if they experience symptoms. They should also go through the Philippines’ quarantine requirements.

“Walang short cut,” he said.

(There’s no short cut.)

Solante said the public should continue to observe the health protocols, while the COVID-19 vaccination program should also proceed unhampered.

"'Pag bumaba ang kaso nagiging complacent na tayo, hindi na tayo nagpapa-test. I think we need to encourage na 'pag merong mga sintomas part of the surveillance talagang magpapa-test tayo," he said.

(We become complacent and no longer do tests when COVID cases drop. I think we need to encourage the public that part of the surveillance is to get tested when we have symptoms.)

More transmissible than Delta? Expert urges public vigilance over Omicron variant

From patient zero to billions wiped off global shares, the inside story of how the Omicron variant emerged [iNews, 27 Nov 2021]

By Jane Merrick

The case of super-variant Omicron’s “Patient Zero” – a 36-year-old man from Hong Kong – throws troubling light on just how contagious this new strain is, and how the international battle to bring the pandemic to an end has become so much harder.

While the global epicentre of the super-variant is South Africa, with cases believed to date back from early November, the first official record of variant B.1.1.529 emerged in Hong Kong on 13 November.

According to Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection (CHP), Patient Zero – case number 12388 – flew to South Africa on 23 October, returning on 11 November on a Qatar Airlines flight QR818.

He tested negative on arrival at Hong Kong airport, but under the territory’s strict quarantine rules he was put up in the Regal Airport Hotel in Chek Lap Kok for the required 21 days.
Two days later he tested positive for Covid-19, with the health authority saying his sample showed signs of a mutation, and the next day, 14 November, he was admitted to hospital with a high viral load.

On 22 November, the patient’s genome sample was uploaded onto GISAID, the global genomic database used by virologists around the world to analyse and compare data.

On that same day, the CHP noticed a link between case 12388 and a second, labelled 12404 – someone who had not been to South Africa but was staying in the same hotel as the 36-year-old. In fact, their rooms were opposite each other on the 5th floor of the Regal Airport Hotel.
Case 12404 had checked into the hotel on 10 November, a day before case 12388, and tested negative twice before being diagnosed with Covid-19 on 18 November. He was also admitted to hospital.
Investigators swabbed the rooms of the two men – room 5111 for case 12404 and room 5112 for case 12388 – and found 25 positive samples of Covid-19 on surfaces and other areas.

The CHP report, published on 22 November and seen by i, reads: “Opinions from experts suggested that case 12404, who had stayed in the room opposite to the room where case 12388 had stayed, might have been infected with the virus while air flowed to the corridor when case 12388 opened his hotel room door without wearing a surgical mask, coupled with unsatisfactory air flow.”

Officials contact-traced everyone who stayed on their corridor between 11 and 14 November. It is believed there are no further cases.

Health experts in this country have told i this level of infectiousness – transmission occurring across a corridor when a hotel door is opened – has occurred with Delta, which is also a highly infectious strain.

But this still suggests it is a high-transmission variant, and the CHP report is one of a number that have been pored over by the UK Health Security Agency and World Health Organisation as they scramble to assess how infectious the B.1.1.529 variant is.

As officials in Hong Kong were investigating the two airport hotel cases, scientists in South Africa were trying to establish what was causing a new wave in the country, with an outbreak centred on Gauteng province.

Cases there had risen from a very low level at the start of November to an exponential growth of cases in the space of two weeks. Less than 1 per cent of people in Gauteng were testing positive at the start of November, but this rose to 6 per cent within a fortnight.

South Africa’s high level of genomic sampling meant scientists there were able to quickly establish something different about these new cases. Since 12 November, they have found 77 samples with what is known as S-gene failure – essentially a gene that is missing in a normal covid genome profile.

Although many scientists in South Africa and internationally were noticing evidence of a new variant, a virologist back in the UK was the first to officially report it.

On 22 November, the first sequences were uploaded onto GISAID – including the pair of travellers from Hong Kong.

The next day, Dr Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, posted a Pango lineage request – essentially the internationally agreed system of naming covid variants.

Marking it “urgent”, he labelled it “B.1.1 descendant associated with Southern Africa with extremely high number of Spike mutations”, listing 32 of these changes – twice the number seen in Delta.

On Twitter, Dr Peacock described the profile of the variant as “horrific”. There were just four cases, but over the next 24 hours the online database entry would see more samples added – to around 10, including some from Botswana, South Africa and Hong Kong.

A fellow scientist, a geneticist from Stanford University, speculated in the comments that the virus was so different to the original Wuhan strain, Sars-Cov-2, it could be labelled “Sars-Cov-3” – “essentially restarting the pandemic”.

On the morning of Wednesday 24 November, after reading Dr Peacock’s Pango entry request, the i newspaper contacted officials in the UK government about the variant, which did not yet have a distinct label. The i was told UK Health Security Agency officials were looking into the variant as a “matter of routine”.

In fact, the agency’s top health experts were alerted to Dr Peacock and other scientists’ warnings about the variant, and were investigating it as a matter of urgency, including speaking to and offering assistance to scientists in South Africa.

The number of mutations, associated with everything from vaccine escape, higher transmission and higher viral load, caused serious concern among the UK’s top covid experts.
At lunchtime on Wednesday, the i was the first news organisation in the world to publish a story about the variant, which had just been assigned the label B.1.1.529.

Back in South Africa, it is understood, journalists read the i article and began asking the health department for a full briefing on what they knew about the variant.

By Thursday morning, as South African scientific experts gave their press conference, the full extent of the variant’s spread became clear. There were close to 100 cases in Gauteng, but Professor Tulio de Oliveira, a leading South African covid expert, told the press conference he expected there to be “many more” across South Africa.
It was clear the variant was spreading so fast in South Africa that action had to be taken by other governments.

On Thursday afternoon, senior health officials at the UKHSA advised ministers about the extent of the spread and its apparent superior infectiousness.

Within hours it became clear that – just 48 hours after the variant was first identified – ministers had to take drastic action, and they decided to ban flights from South Africa and five other southern African countries.

A senior health expert said the variant was the worst they had ever seen because the 32 mutations made it so dramatically different to the original Wuhan strain, to which the world is building up immunity.

By Friday, a string of other countries imposed travel bans on South Africa, and nervousness about the new variant’s threat to the pandemic recovery sent global stock markets tumbling.
The World Health Organisation, which took two months to designate Delta a variant of concern, decided B.1.1.529 needed the label just 72 hours after it was identified, giving it the Greek name Omicron.

Around £72 billion was wiped off the value of London’s top shares, while the Dow Jones recorded its worst day in more than a year, closing 900 points lower.

Omicron: 5 things Dr Fauci says about this new variant of Covid-19 [Hindustan Times, 27 Nov 2021]

by Poulomi Ghosh

There is no indication that new Covid variant Omicron is present in the United States, but anything is possible, Dr Anthony Fauci said.

Scientists of the United States are actively communicating with their colleagues in South Africa to get more details about Omicron, the new variant of Covid-19, America's top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci said. Reports of the new variant have triggered panic and brought back fresh restrictions across the world. The variant is heavily mutated and is thought to be more transmissible than the previous variants.

Here are five things that the White House chief medical advisor said about the Omicron in an interview with CNN. Fauci was asked about the concerns regarding Omcron and whether there is any chance that it has already spread to the United States.

1. There are concerns over more transmissibility and the possibility of the evasion of the immune response. We do not know for sure right now. This is really something in motion.

Shouldn’t let guards down’: WHO tells southeast Asian countries over omicron

2. The variant seems to be spreading at a reasonably rapid rate in the sense of when they do test positivity, it seems to be a bit more widespread than what was previously thought. It is in a fluid motion.

3. Anything is possible. There is no indication that the new variant is present in the United States. There is a lot of travel involved in how the variant spread from South Africa to Hong Kong. And so, we are trying to get the actual molecular make-up of the variant so that we can test for it. And that's something that will take time.

WHO avoids Greek alphabet Xi and names new Covid variant Omicron. Here's why

4. When you look at a mutation, it is going to give you a hint or prediction that it might evade the immune response. You need to get that particular sequence of the virus, put it in a form in the lab where you can actually test the different antibodies so you can have a prediction that it might evade or you can actually prove it. Right now, we are getting the material together.

Omicron cases detected in UK, Germany and Italy

Although epidemiologists say travel curbs may be too late to stop the Omicron variant from circulating globally, many countries around the world - including the United States, Brazil, Canada and European Union nations - announced travel bans or restrictions on southern Africa. This report produced by Jonah Green.

5. You are talking about sort of like a red flag that it might be an issue but we don't know. Once we test, you can tell for sure whether it does or does not evade the antibodies that we make for example against the virus through a vaccine.

Top Botswana health official ‘very concerned’ about Omicron variant [FRANCE 24, 27 Nov 2021]

With a growing number of countries imposing travel restrictions from southern Africa amid the new Omicron variant fears, Botswana’s Covid-19 task force chief Kereng Masupu, told FRANCE 24 his country was taking all necessary public health measures to stem a viral spread.

Botswana, one of the southern African nations facing new travel restrictions, has recorded more than 194,000 total Covid-19 cases and 2,416 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Speaking to FRANCE 24 on Friday night, Kereng Masupu, coordinator of Botswana’s presidential Covid-19 task force, said the country had detected four confirmed Omicron variant cases and 11 other people were under investigation.

Although public health officials were “very, very worried” about the new variant, Masupu stressed that Botswana is “ready to deal with it”.

Novavax working on vaccine to combat omicron variant | TheHill [The Hill, 27 Nov 2021]

Biotechnology company Novavax is working on a vaccine to combat the new omicron coronavirus variant that was first detected in South Africa.

Public health officials in the U.S. and abroad are worried the omicron variant could be more transmissible and resistant to current vaccines due to the 30 mutations at the spike protein. This protein is the region that interacts with human cells prior to entry.

Novavax said its vaccine would contain the mutated spike protein in the omicron variant so individuals can develop an immune response, a company spokesperson said.

The testing and manufacturing of the shot will likely “take a few weeks,” the spokesperson added.

The company's vaccine received emergency use approval in Indonesia earlier this month and was later approved for emergency use by the Philippines. The company has yet to file for approval in the U.S.

Other vaccine developers said they have already begun evaluating how effective their vaccines are on the new variant. BioNTech said Friday that the company will know in two weeks how effective the vaccine it developed with Pfizer is against the omicron variant.

"We expect more data from the laboratory tests in two weeks at the latest. These data will provide more information about whether B.1.1.529 could be an escape variant that may require an adjustment of our vaccine if the variant spreads globally," a BioNTech spokesperson told Reuters.

The omicron strain has triggered a worldwide scramble to contain the spread, with many countries restricting air travel from several African countries a day after the variant was announced.

The new variant was first found in South Africa and is confirmed to have spread to the United Kingdom, Israel, Hong Kong, Belgium and Botswana.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has already declared a state of emergency in preparation for a surge in cases in the state, although there have been no confirmed cases reported in the U.S.

Omicron: What Is the Difference Between ‘Variant of Interest' Vs. ‘Variant of Concern?' [NBC Chicago, 27 Nov 2021]

As the World Health Organization announces that omircon has been classified as a "variant of concern," many are asking about the difference between this categorization and a "variant of interest."

WHO Health Emergencies Programme COVID-19 Technical Lead Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said early evidence on omicron, known by the technical term B.1.1.529, shows that the variant has a large number of mutations, some of which have concerning characteristics.

Omicron has also shown to have an increased risk of reinfection compared to other highly transmissible variants, indicating that people who contracted COVID and recovered could be more subject to catching it again with this variant.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, variants of the coronavirus were expected.

"Viruses constantly change through mutation, and new variants of a virus are expected to occur," the CDC's website reads. "Sometimes new variants emerge and disappear. Other times, new variants persist. Numerous variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 are being tracked in the United States and globally during this pandemic."

Variants are categorized into three categories: (1) "variants of interest," (2) "variants of concern" and (3) "variants of high consequence."

The CDC states that a variant is classified as a variant of interest if it shows "specific genetic markers that have been associated with changes to receptor binding, reduced neutralization by antibodies generated against previous infection or vaccination, reduced efficacy of treatments, potential diagnostic impact, or predicted increase in transmissibility or disease severity."

"We will probably have a variant of what we call a variant of interest identified every few weeks," Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said Tuesday.
"Like that's how this virus works. Variants of interest just mean we've seen a number of the same genetic mutations emerge and scientists around the world are on the lookout for it every single time. A virus anywhere in the world gets this genetic sequence, it gets updated into a database that's shared internationally, so we can really see what's emerging. When a variant of interest emerges, it says, 'Oh, this is something we should watch a little bit.'"

A variant of concern is one in which "there is evidence of an increase in transmissibility, more severe disease (e.g., increased hospitalizations or deaths), significant reduction in neutralization by antibodies generated during previous infection or vaccination, reduced effectiveness of treatments or vaccines, or diagnostic detection failures," according to the CDC.

"Once we see a variant of interest clearly have an impact, meaning it is more contagious, it might be evading a treatment, it's clearly making people sicker - that makes it into a variant of concern," Arwady said.

Variants of concern, which include alpha, beta, delta and now omicron, have shown to spread more easily, cause more serious disease, or dent the effectiveness of vaccines and other COVID-fighting tools. They’re more worrying than the variants of interest — like mu and lambda — that have affected aspects like transmissibility and severity of the disease but aren't as transmissible.

Finally, a variant of high consequence "has clear evidence that prevention measures or medical countermeasures have significantly reduced effectiveness relative to previously circulating variants." Or, as Chicago's top doctor put it, a variant in which "the vaccine was not working very well."

Currently there are no variants of high consequence.

"I would say if something became a variant of high consequence that would be a big deal," Arwady said, adding that such variants are ones in which "the vaccine was not working very well."

As of Saturday, no cases of omicron have officially been detected across the U.S., according to health officials. The Chicago Department of Public Health noted, however, that they are "don't know" if the variant has reached America yet.

Omicron has thus far been seen in travelers to the U.K., Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel, as well as in southern Africa.

Biden and Harris briefed as US braces for arrival of Omicron Covid variant [The Guardian, 27 Nov 2021]

By Edward Helmore

US imposes travel restrictions from southern Africa as Anthony Fauci says he would not be surprised if variant were already in US

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been briefed on the latest situation regarding the new Omicron coronavirus variant, the White House said on Saturday, as Britain, Germany and Italy reported detecting cases.

Biden, who was spending Thanksgiving with family in Nantucket, Massachusetts, told reporters on Friday: “We don’t know a lot about the variant except that it is of great concern [and] seems to spread rapidly.”

Omicron was first detected in South Africa, leading countries including the US to impose travel restrictions on that nation and at least seven others in the region.

No cases of Omicron have been identified in the US to date, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The agency expects that it would identify the variant quickly if it emerges in the US.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease specialist and chief White House medical adviser, told NBC on Saturday he “would not be surprised” if the variant were already in the US.

“When you have a virus that is showing this degree of transmissibility and you’re already having travel-related cases that they’ve noted in Israel and Belgium and other places, when you have a virus like this, it almost invariably is ultimately going to go essentially all over,” Fauci said.

Asked about next moves to deal with the Omicron threat, Harris told reporters the administration would take it “one step at a time”.

“For now we’ve done what we think is necessary,” she said.

The White House said senior health officials and its Covid response team were monitoring the latest updates on Omicron and were in regular touch with officials around the world.

In New York, one of the states hit hardest and earliest by Covid-19, the governor announced steps to limit a new winter wave of infections as transmission rates approach those of April 2020.

New York has recorded more than 2.7m cases of Covid-19 and more than 57,000 deaths, the fourth highest state death toll, behind California, Texas and Florida.

Late on Friday, Governor Kathy Hochul said: “While the new Omicron variant has yet to be detected in New York state, it’s coming.”

The next day, the banner headline on the front page of the New York Post tabloid said simply: “Omi-God, Not Again.”

Hochul also issued an executive order postponing elective surgeries, a move designed to protect hospital capacity until at least 15 January, and a disaster emergency declaration.

Covid hospital admissions in New York have increased to more than 300 a day. Hospitals with less than 10% staffed bed capacity, or those designated by the state, will be authorized to screen patients and restrict admissions.

Hochul said: “We’ve taken extraordinary action to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and combat this pandemic. However, we continue to see warning signs of spikes this upcoming winter.”

The governor urged New Yorkers to mask up in indoor public venues, get tested when appropriate and to stay home when ill.

Two-thirds of New York state residents are fully vaccinated and close to 80% have received at least one dose, according to the governor’s office. But New York state is divided between intensively vaccinated downstate areas, including New York City, and upstate areas that have lower vaccination rates and higher rates of infection.

According to the state health department, Buffalo and western New York has a 9.67% Covid positivity rate. The positivity rate in New York City is 1.65%, less than half the 3.84% state average. Vaccination rates in some regions are as low as 52%. In New York City, 97% of Queens adults and 94% of Manhattan adults have had the jab.

Hochul urged New Yorkers to get the vaccination, noting that just under 10% of adults in the state have not.

“The vaccine remains one of our greatest weapons in fighting the pandemic and I encourage every New Yorker to get vaccinated and get the booster if you’re fully vaccinated,” she said.
As parts of the US experience Covid surges, intensive care units in Michigan are approaching capacity. New York and other eastern states are watching closely.

On Friday the mayor-elect of New York City, Eric Adams, said the Omicron variant was “a concerning development that we must watch extremely closely, and be prepared to address as a city, state and country. Our health officials must … have response options available should it prove to be significantly more virulent.”

Adams and the outgoing mayor, Bill de Blasio, earlier came together to urge city residents to get the vaccines and booster shots.

Vaccine makers race to stay ahead of new COVID-19 variants [NPR, 27 Nov 2021]

By DUSTIN JONES

A new strain of COVID-19 first discovered in South Africa was declared a variant of concern by the World Health Organization on Friday. Here's how the pharmaceutical industry plans to address the latest coronavirus curve ball.

Vaccine makers are already pivoting their efforts to combat the new variant: testing higher doses of booster shots, designing new boosters that anticipate strain mutations, and developing omicron-specific boosters.

In a statement sent to NPR, Moderna said it has been working on a comprehensive strategy to predict variants of concern since the beginning of 2021. One approach is to double the current booster from 50 to 100 micrograms. Secondly, the vaccine maker has been studying two booster vaccines that are designed to anticipate mutations like those found in the omicron variant. The company also said it will ramp up efforts to make a booster candidate that specifically targets omicron.

"From the beginning, we have said that as we seek to defeat the pandemic, it is imperative that we are proactive as the virus evolves," said Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel. "The mutations in the Omicron variant are concerning and for several days, we have been moving as fast as possible to execute our strategy to address this variant."

Pfizer and BioNTech told Reuters that it expects more data about the omicron variant to be collected within two weeks. That information will help determine whether or not they need to modify their current vaccine. Pfizer and BioNTech said that a vaccine tailored for the omicron variant, if needed, could be ready to ship in approximately 100 days.

Johnson & Johnson said in a statement sent to NPR that it too is already testing its vaccine's efficacy against the new variant.

The omicron variant was first reported to the WHO on Nov. 24, the WHO said. Preliminary evidence indicates the variant poses an increased risk for reinfection due to the large number of mutations. Until recently, cases across South Africa have predominantly been from the delta variant, an earlier strain that has pushed health care systems to the max since early summer.
But omicron infections have been on the rise in recent weeks, the WHO reported.
More concerning, omicron cases have emerged across the globe. Al Jazeera reported that cases have been confirmed in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Israel and Hong Kong.

News of the rapidly spreading variant led to a new set of air travel restrictions from South Africa and seven other countries, implemented by President Joe Biden, that go into effect Monday. The president made the announcement the day after Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel periods of the year.

Unlike last year, when millions of people traveled against the advice of health experts, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and chief medical advisor to the president, Dr. Anthony Fauci, more or less condoned Thanksgiving get-togethers for vaccinated Americans.
And, according to an American Automobile Association travel forecast, over 53 million people were expected to travel for Thanksgiving — an 18% jump compared to last year — including more than 4 million by air.

As of Friday, the CDC said that no cases of the omicron variant had been identified in the United States. However, Fauci said on Saturday that he would not be surprised if the variant is already here.

"We have not detected it yet, but when you have a virus that is showing this degree of transmissibility and you're already having travel-related cases that they've noted in Israel and Belgium and other places ... it almost invariably is ultimately going to go essentially all over," he said in an interview on the Today show.

As Americans prepare to transition from one busy holiday to the next, the CDC is predicting that coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths will increase over the next four weeks.
More than 776,000 people in the U.S. have died of COVID-19 to date, according to Johns Hopkins University's tracker, and the country is projected to surpass 800,000 deaths by Christmas.

WHO avoids Greek alphabet Xi and names new Covid variant Omicron. Here's why [Hindustan Times, 27 Nov 2021]

The new variant of Covid identified first in South Africa has been named omicron by the World Health Organization on Friday. The variants of SARS-CoV-2 are named after Greek alphabets, but for naming omicron, the experts skipped two letters Nu and Xi and chose omicron instead. In fact, Nu started trending on social media platforms after the news of a new Covid variant came out as Nu was the possible choice for the name of this new variant, which is believed to be more transmissible than the other variants.

Omicron comes next to Nu and Xi, the alphabets WHO experts have cautiously avoided.
According to experts, Nu has been avoided as this alphabet is confusing with the English word new. And Xi has been avoided so that the name is not misconstrued as a reference to Chinese premier Xi Jinping.

Omicron Covid variant: What do we know about risks, symptoms, tests

Paul Nuki, senior editor of the Telegraph shared a quote from a source in WHO who said the alphabets have been deliberately avoided. "Nu had been skipped to avoid confusion with the word new and Xi had been skipped to avoid stigmatising a region," the court read, without mentioning the region.

Omicron cases detected in UK, Germany and Italy

Although epidemiologists say travel curbs may be too late to stop the Omicron variant from circulating globally, many countries around the world - including the United States, Brazil, Canada and European Union nations - announced travel bans or restrictions on southern Africa. This report produced by Jonah Green.

"If the WHO is this scared of the Chinese Communist Party, how can they be trusted to call them out the next time they're trying to cover up a catastrophic global pandemic?" Senator Ted Cruz tweeted.

Omicron is the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet. The letter is derived from the Phoenician letter ayin.

"Based on the evidence presented indicative of a detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology, the TAG-VE has advised WHO that this variant should be designated as a VOC, and the WHO has designated B.1.1.529 as a VOC, named Omicron," the WHO said on Friday.

World is put on high alert over the Omicron coronavirus variant [CNN, 27 Nov 2021]

By Ivana Kottasová

(CNN)Europe is frantically imposing travel bans, scrambling to ramp up its coronavirus sequencing abilities after several countries on the continent reported suspected cases of the newly identified and potentially more transmissible coronavirus variant known as Omicron.

As of Friday, the variant was found in South Africa, Botswana, Hong Kong and Belgium, and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said Friday there was a "high to very high" risk the new variant would spread in Europe.

By Saturday afternoon, two cases were confirmed in the United Kingdom, two others in Germany and one in Italy. Dozens more are suspected in the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. The top infectious disease expert in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci, also said it was possible the new variant was already in his country but was yet to be detected.

UK's Secretary of State for Health Sajid Javid said the two cases detected in the UK were linked to travel to southern Africa, the region where the Omicron variant was first detected.
"These individuals are self-isolating with their households while further testing and contact tracing is underway," he added.

The German cases, identified in Munich, are two passengers who arrived from Cape Town on November 24, the Bavarian Ministry of Health said in a statement on Saturday.

"The individuals have been in domestic isolation since Nov. 25 following a positive PCR test. Following reports of the new variant, the two individuals had the foresight to arrange for themselves to be tested for the variant," authorities said.

The Italian case is in the southwestern region of Campania, a passenger who arrived from Mozambique, Italy's health ministry said in a statement. It didn't disclose the date of the passenger's arrival or nationality.

Earlier on Saturday, German authorities had identified a "suspected" case of the Omicron variant in Frankfurt from another passenger who returned from South Africa. The local health department said it should be able to confirm the full sequencing of the virus in this patient on Monday.

Similarly, health authorities in the Czech Republic are investigating a suspected case of the Omicron variant in a traveller who has recently arrived from Namibia, the Czech National Institute of Public Health said in a statement emailed to CNN.

The institute said that that a PCR test indicated the infection could have been caused by the Omicron variant, but added that a full sequencing of the sample needs to be completed in order to confirm this. It said the sequencing work is underway.

Dutch health authorities are investigating whether 61 people traveling from South Africa who tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday were infected with the new variant.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that to date no known Omicron cases have been identified in the United States, and that if the variant emerges, the agency expects that cases would be quickly identified through the nation's variant surveillance system.
Fauci, the CDC Director, told NBC Saturday, "I would not be surprised if it is [in the US], we have not detected it yet, but when you have a virus that is showing this degree of transmissibility and you're having travel-related cases they've noted in other places already, when you have a virus like this, it almost invariably is going to go all over."

The World Health Organization (WHO) said late on Friday that early evidence suggest the Omicron variant, first identified in South Africa, could pose an increased risk of reinfection and said that some of the mutations detected on the variant were concerning.

GGD Kennemerland, the municipal health service responsible for the Amsterdam Schiphol airport, said the positive test results would be examined as soon as possible. Those who tested positive were sent into isolation at a nearby hotel, the Dutch authorities added.

The discovery of the new variant has sparked fears around the world. A number of countries have imposed travel bans and the global markets plunged.

But while WHO designated the Omicron a "variant of concern" on Friday, it stressed that more research is needed to determine whether the variant is more contagious, whether it causes more severe disease, and whether it could evade vaccines.

"This variant has a large number of mutations and some of these mutations have some worrying characteristics," Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead for Covid-19, said in a statement on Friday.

"Right now there are many studies that are underway ... so far there's little information but those studies are underway so we need researchers to have the time to carry those out and WHO will inform the public and our partners and our member states as soon as we have more information," she added.

Lawrence Young, a virologist and a professor of molecular oncology at Warwick Medical School in the United Kingdom, said the Omicron variant was "very worrying."

"It is the most heavily mutated version of the virus we have seen to date. This variant carries some changes we've seen previously in other variants but never all together in one virus. It also has novel mutations," Young said in a statement.

The variant has a high number of mutations, about 50 overall. Crucially, South African genomic scientists said Thursday more than 30 of the mutations were found in the spike protein -- the structure the virus uses to get into the cells they attack.

South Africa cut off
The discovery of the variant sparked a fresh round of travel restrictions across the world, with many countries shutting their borders to travelers from several southern African countries.

The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Russia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt, the Philippines, Thailand and a number of other countries already announced or proposed bans on flights from the region.

Most, including the US, have restricted travel from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.

The South African government has taken an issue with the travel bans, pointing out in a statement that the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention "strongly discourages" travel bans for people originating from countries that have reported the variant.

"Over the duration of this pandemic, we have observed that imposing bans on travelers from countries where a new variant is reported has not yielded a meaningful outcome," the statement said.

Scientists have praised South African health authorities for their quick reaction to a Covid-19 outbreak in the country's Gauteng province, which led to the discovery of the new variant.

When cases in the province started to rise at a higher rate than elsewhere, health experts focused on sequencing samples from those who tested positive, which allowed them to quickly identify the B.1.1.529 variant.

Peacock said the South African health ministry and its scientists "are to be applauded in their response, their science, and in sounding the alarm to the world."

She added the development shows how important it is to have excellent sequencing capabilities and to share expertise with others. That message was reinforced by WHO, which has on Friday called on countries to enhance their surveillance and sequencing efforts to better understand coronavirus variants.

But Dr. Richard Lessells, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban said South Africa was being "punished" for its transparency and ability to pick up the variant quickly and flag the issue to the international health authorities.

"What I found disgusting and really distressing ... was not just the travel ban being implemented by the UK and Europe but that that was the only reaction or the strongest reaction. There was no word of support that they're going to offer to African countries to help us control the pandemic," he told CNN.

The southern German state has also imposed a lockdown on all districts

New Coronavirus News from 13 Dec 2021

Omicron is spreading fast. That's alarming even if it's mild [CNN, 13 Dec 2021]

By Maggie Fox

(CNN)The Omicron variant of coronavirus is spreading quickly in several countries where it has been discovered. Even if it causes only mild disease -- and that's far from certain -- that could still mean many people end up in the hospital and dying.

It's killed at least one person in the UK and put 10 into the hospital -- most of them vaccinated, according to government authorities.

"It is spreading faster than the Delta variant in South Africa where Delta circulation was low, but also appears to spread more quickly than the Delta variant in other countries where the incidence of Delta is high, such as in the United Kingdom," the World Health Organization said in a technical briefing last week.

"Given the current available data, it is likely that Omicron will outpace the Delta variant where community transmission occurs," WHO added.

It's not clear how severe the new variant is, although most cases that have been diagnosed so far have been mild. That could be reassuring, but if Omicron spreads more easily than Delta and previous variants, evades the protection offered by vaccines and by previous infection, and ends up infecting more people, that could mean more people end up in the hospital and more die.

"What we now know about Omicron is that ... it's spreading at a phenomenal rate, something that we've never seen before. It's doubling every two to three days in infections," UK Health Secretary Sajid Javic told Britain's Sky News Monday. "That means we're facing a tidal wave of infection. We're once again in a race between the vaccine and the virus."

A new study out Monday from researchers at Oxford University adds to evidence that two of the main vaccines deployed against Covid-19 -- the AstraZeneca vaccine used widely in Britain and around the world but not in the US,and the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine used widely in the US, Europe and elsewhere -- won't protect people as well against the Omicron variant.

"Our findings show that vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease with the Omicron variant is significantly lower than with the Delta variant," the researchers wrote.

Infecting both the vaccinated and the boosted
Several reports indicate at least some of those infected with Omicron have been both fully vaccinated and boosted, and tests against blood samples from vaccinated and boosted people indicate the same thing.

What this may indicate is that vaccination and especially booster shots provide good protection against severe disease with the Omicron variant, doctors say -- although it is far too soon to know for sure. Health officials note many of the first cases have been seen among travelers and people who might be in good health and who might take other precautions.

Disease modelers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine released a report Saturday that projects infections in England passing last winter's peak in terms of daily numbers. This could translate into double the number of daily hospital admissions as seen last year, they wrote in a pre-print report posted online.

What's really uncertain is what Omicron will do to more vulnerable people, who are unlikely to be among the first infected, but who will eventually see the virus come their way. This might include the elderly, people with varying levels of immune compromise and those with pre-existing medical conditions.

Seeking out the susceptible
"This virus will eventually seek out and land on the people who are the most susceptible, and those are the ones that have not been vaccinated, A, and also the ones that have not been boosted. It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when," Los Angeles internal medicine specialist Dr. Jorge Rodriguez told CNN.

"High numbers can still mean many people in the hospital," Dr. Crystal Watson, a senior associate at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told CNN.

While only a few cases have been identified in the US so far, there is little reason to think it will not spread in the US as it has elsewhere.

Houston officials said last week the Omicron variant had been detected in wastewater there, although it had not yet turned up in tests of people diagnosed with the virus. That could indicate quiet community spread -- something that would not be surprising for a variant that causes mild symptoms or no symptoms. WFTV reported similar findings in central Florida but quoted Altamonte Springs city manager Frank Martz as saying detecting any genetic material from the virus indicated more than one person in the area was infected with the variant.

Even without Omicron adding to the spread, the Delta variant combined with an undervaccinated population, is doing plenty of damage.

The US passed 50 million reported cased of coronavirus infection Monday, and is fast approaching 800,000 deaths.

The CEOs of several health care systems in Minnesota signed a full-page newspaper ad begging people to get vaccinated.

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"Our emergency departments are overfilled, and we have patients in every bed in our hospitals," the ad read. "Your access to health care is being seriously threatened by COVID-19. We need to stop the spread!"

It urges people to get vaccinated and boosted, to wear masks and to get tested for the virus.

California Orders New Universal Indoor Mask Mandate, Effective Wednesday, As Infection Rates Rise [Deadline, 13Dec 2021]

By Tom Tapp

In a surprise move Monday, California state officials announced that the state is instituting a universal indoor mask mandate, effective Wednesday, December 15. The current mandate will run through January 15, 2022.

“We will require universal masking in indoor settings statewide,” said state director of health and human services Dr. Mark Ghaly, noting that the order will cover the roughly 50% of California’s population not currently under such a mandate.

“We know people are tired and hungry for normalcy. Frankly, I am too,” Ghaly admitted today. “That said, this is a critical time where we have a tool that we know has worked. We are proactively putting this tool of universal indoor masking in public settings in place to ensure we get through a time of joy and hope without a darker cloud of concern and despair.”

The state will also tighten restrictions on unvaccinated people who attend indoor “mega-events” of 1,000 people or more, requiring them to receive a negative Covid test within one day of the event if it’s a rapid antigen test or within two days for a PCR test. Current rules require a test within 72 hours of the event.

The state is also recommending, but not requiring, that people who travel to California or return to the state after traveling be tested for Covid within three to five days.

Current state guidelines — which are followed by many counties including Riverside, Orange and San Diego — say masks are only required indoors at public transit facilities such as airports, healthcare settings, adult and senior care facilities, schools, correctional facilities, homeless shelters, emergency shelters and cooling centers. The new order extends the requirement in those counties to movie theaters, retail stores, restaurants, family entertainment centers and government offices that serve the public.

Los Angeles County already has a mask-wearing mandate at indoor public facilities.

The state currently requires mask-wearing for unvaccinated people at indoor public facilities, but the new rule will apply to everyone regardless of vaccine status.

Ghaly noted on a hastily-arranged conference call with reporters that the state had seen a 47% rise in case rates since Thanksgiving, from 9.6 per 100,000 cases to 14 per 100,000. He also reported that local hospitals are seeing patient levels “significantly above their baseline for this time of year.”

He continued: “We know that we’re entering into a pretty hard time, that we’re staring to see some of these numbers come up pretty quickly in some communities…[Masking] is the common sense thing to do.”

Infections are not spread evenly across the state, he said. “There are some counties that are well above our average (in case rates).” That could mean “serious challenges” to those communities, according to Ghaly. Many of those communities are also among the least vaccinated.

He pointed to rising infections in Riverside and San Bernardino, Inyo and Mono Counties and the Central Valley, as well as in the northernmost parts of the state, such as Humboldt, Del Norte and Mendocino.

Last winter, the state saw about 28,000 deaths related to Covid between November 2020 and February 2021. The HHS director said officials are hoping to avoid a repeat of that tragedy.
“Frankly with Delta and Omicron and the more rapid replication, we are seeing people who — if they do become severely sick — they are becoming sicker sooner. So we don’t have nearly as much room…as we did last year to make adjustments.”

While Delta still dominates, the state has identified 13 instances of the Omicron variant, including some that appear to be via community transmission — as opposed to those people who were infected abroad before traveling here.

The California order was announced on the same day that New York state’s indoor public mask mandate took effect. According to NBC, similar orders have been issued in Washington, Oregon, Illinois, New Mexico, Nevada and Hawaii.

When asked whether the measure was a first step top other increased restrictions Ghaly said, “Absolutely not.

When asked about enforcement of the mandate statewide, California’s top health official acknowledged that some venues will adhere to the order more strictly than others. But, he emphasized, “We are expecting Californians to heed the warnings and mask up.”

California orders statewide mask mandate amid rise in COVID [Los Angeles Times, 13Dec 2021]

BY RONG-GONG LIN II

Faced with rising coronavirus cases, California is ordering a statewide mask mandate for indoor public spaces to go into effect on Wednesday.
The order will affect roughly half the state’s population, including San Diego and Orange counties, the Inland Empire, the Central Valley and rural Northern California. The statewide indoor mask mandate order will last a month and will expire on Jan. 15.

Los Angeles County, Ventura County and most of the San Francisco Bay Area have their own indoor mask mandates that were implemented in the summer.

The move comes as coronavirus case rates have risen by 50% in the last 2½ weeks, and county health officials across the state say they suspect they may be seeing the start of a winter jump in coronavirus cases. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers California as having a high level of transmission of the coronavirus, the worst tier in the federal agency’s four-tier scale.

California is also recommending that travelers who return or visit the state get tested within three to five days of their arrival.

California’s announcement came on the same day New York enacted its own statewide mask requirement in indoor public spaces, excepting only settings where everyone inside must be vaccinated. Officials in Britain have also re-ordered an expansion of indoor mask mandates.

The new mask orders arrive as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus — discovered only last month — has spread rapidly around the globe. Britain has recorded its first death of someone infected with Omicron variant.

“Omicron will almost certainly overtake Delta and cause new waves of infection globally,” Dr. Tom Frieden, a former CDC director, tweeted. While there has been some optimism Omicron may cause less severe illness, “this will take time to figure out,” Frieden wrote.

In addition, many states elsewhere nationally have been struggling with a winter COVID-19 surge to the still-dominant Delta variant. “We see other states in the United States struggle with overwhelmed hospitals, and a high number of cases,” Dr. Mark Ghaly, the California health and human services secretary, told reporters Monday.

Ghaly said he’s concerned that hospital capacity is still pressed and challenged, particularly in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, across the Central Valley and in the eastern Sierra and the rural north. A number of hospitals throughout the state are busier than usual for this time of year, where staff are still exhausted from battling a nearly two-year-old historic pandemic, and there’s still plenty of pent-up demand for healthcare needs that were postponed during earlier parts of the pandemic.

The evidence is there that masks still make a difference, Ghaly said. The coronavirus is airborne and can also spread silently from infected, asymptomatic people.

“Even a 10% increase in indoor masking can reduce case transmission significantly,” Ghaly said. “Wearing a mask is going to be one of the most important things to help us get through this period of uncertainty.”

“This is a critical time where we have a tool that we know has worked and can work. We are proactively putting this tool of universal indoor masking in public settings in place to ensure we get through a time of joy and hope without a darker cloud of concern and despair,” Ghaly said. “Californians have done this before. And we of course believe we can do it again.”

Under the new order to go in effect on Wednesday, California is also tightening rules related to entering large events. Existing rules require patrons age 3 and older of indoor events of 1,000 or more people, or outdoor events of 10,000 or more people, to show proof of full vaccination or the results of a recent negative test.

For patrons who chose to show a recent negative test, existing rules allow them to show a test as much as 72 hours old; the new rules require patrons to show a more recent test — within two days if it’s a PCR test, whose results need to come out of a lab, or one day if it’s a rapid antigen test.

UK hikes virus alert level as omicron variant surges [ABC News, 13 Dec 2021]

The British government has raised the country’s official coronavirus threat level and warned the rapid spread of the omicron variant has pushed the U.K. into risky territory

LONDON -- The British government raised the country’s official coronavirus threat level on Sunday, warning the rapid spread of the omicron variant had pushed the U.K. into risky territory.

The chief medical officers of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said the emergence of the highly transmissible new strain “adds additional and rapidly increasing risk to the public and health care services” at a time when COVID-19 is already widespread. They recommended raising the alert level from 3 to 4 on a 5-point scale. The top level, 5, indicates authorities think the health care system is about to be overwhelmed.

The doctors said early evidence shows omicron is spreading much faster than the currently dominant delta variant, and that vaccines offer less protection against it. British officials say omicron is likely to replace delta as the dominant strain in the U.K. within days.

“Data on severity will become clearer over the coming weeks but hospitalizations from omicron are already occurring and these are likely to increase rapidly,” they said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was due to make a televised statement about Britain’s coronavirus situation and the booster vaccination campaign on Sunday evening.

Concerns about the new variant led Johnson’s Conservative government to reintroduce restrictions that were lifted almost six months ago. Masks must be worn in most indoor settings, vaccine certificates must be shown to enter nightclubs and people are being urged to work from home if possible.

Many scientists say that’s unlikely to be enough, however, and are calling for tougher measures.

Johnson’s government is trying to avoid that, but aims to offer everyone 18 and over a booster shot by the end of January.

Scientists in South Africa, where omicron was first identified, say they see signs it may cause less severe disease than delta, but caution that it is too soon to be certain.

The U.K. Health Security Agency said Friday that both the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines appear less effective in preventing symptomatic infections in people exposed to omicron, though preliminary data show that effectiveness appears to rise to between 70% and 75% after a third vaccine dose.

New Coronavirus News from 12 Dec 2021

To tackle Omicron, we need serious leadership [The Guardian, 12 Dec 2021]

Readers are unconvinced that the government’s plan B measures will be enough to curb Covid cases and deaths

Well said, Rachel Clarke (Talk of a No 10 Christmas party is an insult to the thousands who have died of Covid, 8 December). Her wholly justifiable anger, based on her frontline experience of caring for her patients, encapsulates, I suspect, the fury and frustrations of many.

Once he has completed his investigations into “partygate”, the cabinet secretary might usefully place a copy of Ms Clarke’s article alongside the agenda for future cabinet meetings, if only to remind participants that government is a serious business with serious consequences, ideally conducted by serious professionals rather than the current bunch of self-serving, irresponsible amateurs.
Phil Murray
Linlithgow, West Lothian

With the number of the new Omicron cases likely to rise exponentially, and stringent national measures needed, one thing is sure – the rightwing Covid recovery group of Tory MPs will vote against them (Javid advised to take ‘stringent’ Covid measures within a week, leak reveals, 10 December). Their argument will inevitably focus on the impact of such measures as masks in pubs or stricter isolation requirements on the economy, and by voting against the proposals they give yet more encouragement, as if any more was needed after the Downing Street party fiasco, to a UK public keener than ever to disobey.

I have yet to hear a counter argument that details what effect a wave of hospitalisations – up to 10,000 a day – would have on the economy (Report, 10 December). As there is very little data on the severity of disease caused by Omicron, the only sensible approach has to be preventative and cautious. Tory backbenchers might be willing to play politics with the lives of the British people, but making a new strain of a deadly virus a political football is downright despicable.

The sixth richest economy in the world can easily afford to subsidise hospitality venues in trouble, but it cannot afford risking a variant that evades the population’s built-up immunity running rife.
Bernie Evans
Liverpool

It’s ironic that just about the only sensible anti-Covid measures our prime minister is contemplating – further controls to combat the spread of the virus – are prompting the biggest rebellion so far among his backbenchers (Report, 9 December). Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Tom Uprichard
London

From this week, if my mates and I want to go and watch our football team we will need a Covid passport and we will need to wear a mask in the ground (Report, 8 December). We will also need to wear a mask if we use public transport to get there – but we can spend several hours in a pub beforehand, mingling and talking without any restrictions. That’s OK then.
Allan Brown
Peterborough

We used to go to the cinema about twice a month, but haven’t been now for almost two years.
The thought of sitting near an unvaccinated, unmasked person who may have pre-symptomatic Covid is a continuing deterrent. What damage to the economy are those “freedom” warriors in parliament doing if thousands of people like us won’t spend our money going out and about? We’d love to see the new West Side Story so glowingly reviewed by Peter Bradshaw, and we just might if the cinema asks for vaccine passports and masks now.
Sue Humphries
York

How Omicron appears to be infecting Britain – despite the vaccine [The Guardian, 12 Dec 2021]

By Helen Pidd

Anecdotal reports suggest mass outbreaks after social gatherings – even among people who have had a Covid booster

irst there was the party at the Oslo restaurant that resulted in 80 out of 111 guests catching Covid, mostly the Omicron variant, despite being double vaccinated and having tested negative before attending. Then came the seven German tourists who all travelled together to South Africa and caught Omicron despite having received a booster.

Over the last few days, anecdotal reports have suggested an increasing number of Omicron outbreaks at social gatherings in the UK, too. The broadcaster Victoria Derbyshire tweeted that her brother caught Covid three or four weeks after receiving his booster jab after a night out with “a load of mates” on 3 December. All were vaccinated and 17 out of 21 tested positive, she said.

Although official data has yet to confirm the trend, concerns are mounting about the impact of increased transmissibility, including among fully vaccinated people, even if most are reporting relatively mild symptoms.

“Certainly, compared to the Delta variant, we’re seeing more of these multiple infection events,” said Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, who runs the Zoe Covid symptom app. “Delta didn’t seem to affect everyone at an event – just one out of six vaccinated people might get ill then.” Now, it could be a majority.

Omicron also seems to come on very quickly, “because the transmission time is very short”, said Spector. That’s why he is advising anyone attending a social gathering to do a rapid lateral flow test (LFT) “a few hours before leaving the house”, rather than relying on one from the day before or earlier.

On Sunday the education secretary, Nadim Zahawi, said there were now Omicron cases in UK hospitals and warned that the new strain was “so infectious that it will dominate and exponentially grow”.

On Friday the Zoe app launched a survey asking people to share their Omicron experiences. Early responses suggest that Omicron seems to be able to evade vaccine protection in some people, as borne out by UKHSA data released the same day. “People are saying: ‘We went to this event and nearly all of us are testing positive, and we’re waiting to find out if this is Omicron,’” said Spector.

Many people only learn they have Omicron several days after receiving a positive PCR test. That’s because not all samples are being sequenced for the variant and because only a third of labs in England are capable of telling people immediately if they have it, said Spector.

“The problem is that only about a third of the country would know immediately if it’s Omicron or not, and only a sample are being tested. So depending on where you live, the risk of having a PCR test that comes back and immediately says this is probable Omicron is going to vary, and it’s actually lower in the south and London than it is in the north of England.”

Most labs don’t yet have the technical capabilities to detect the gene “dropout” associated with Omicron, he explained, adding: “It’s not about whether it [is a] good or bad lab, it’s just what they were set up to do.”

One person contacted the Guardian to say they went on a weekend away with four friends and all four later tested positive for Covid. They had received their booster and the other three had been double jabbed.

Two days after their PCR results came back, two received a text from NHS England saying: “Following our previous guidance, we have identified that you may have the Omicron variant of Covid-19.”

The text instructed them to tell everyone in their household to self-isolate, regardless of their vaccination status or age. The person who had been boosted said: “None of us have been really ill. Me the lightest – the heaviest did a day in bed. No one has been really ill. We have all had worse colds.”

One Zoe contributor said 16 out of 18 people at a 60th birthday party in Somerset tested PCR positive for Omicron. All were vaccinated, some with boosters, and had a negative LFT 24 hours beforehand. Their symptoms were mild, Spector said: sore throats, nausea, slight temperatures and headaches. No one needed a doctor.

He said he was advising people to stay at home if they have cold-like symptoms. “Avoid large gatherings and split your groups up into smaller ones where you can control the environment and get everyone to test that day.

“Make sure that no one attending that party has cold-like symptoms, or hasn’t had cold-like symptoms the past three or four days, and on the way to the event make sure that you’re wearing a high-quality mask on crowded public transport, which people are not doing.”

Will Omicron kill Christmas? How science stacks up in boosters v Covid variant battle [The Guardian, 12 Dec 2021]

By Robin McKie

Analysis: UK faces grim winter if vaccines offer poor overall protection, but if the virus has weak powers to evade immunity, hospital cases can be contained

Two competing forces will determine Omicron’s impact on the nation over the next few weeks. The power of booster jabs to give last-minute protection against Covid-19 will be pitted against the new variant’s ability to elude existing immunity. The outcome will decide whether our festive season is going to be muted or miserable.

If enough arms are jabbed with booster vaccines, while Omicron turns out to have poor powers to evade immunity, then there is hope hospital cases will be contained and the NHS will be protected. Severe restrictions in the new year – including the prospect of lockdowns – could be avoided.

But if Omicron is found to evade existing immunity quite easily, while booster campaigns provide poor overall protection, then the country faces a very grim winter with strict restrictions needed for some time.

According to a study by scientists at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the first scenario – poor Omicron escape from immunity matched by effective booster jab protection – would trigger a wave of infection that could lead to 175,000 hospital admissions and 24,700 deaths by the end of April. Closure of some entertainment venues and restrictions on indoor hospitality would be enough to control case numbers.

By contrast, the most pessimistic scenario – high immune escape from vaccines and low effectiveness of booster jabs – would see 74,800 deaths while there would be 492,000 hospital admissions, a figure twice as high as the peak seen in January 2021. Far stricter restrictions, including lockdowns, would then have to be considered.

“These results suggest that Omicron has the potential to cause substantial surges in cases, hospital admissions and deaths in populations with high levels of immunity, including England,” the team state in their paper, which has not yet been peer-reviewed. Nicholas Davies, co-leader of the study team, described Omicron’s threat to the UK as “worrying”.

Presented with evidence like this, many scientists have warned that urgent action should now be taken to hold back infections while booster campaigns are accelerated and given time to take effect. “Cases are doubling every two to three days which means there is a real risk the curve is going to get very steep around Christmas and New Year,” said the vaccine expert Peter English.

“That means panic measures could be brought in at the last minute and disrupt people’s festive plans. I am also desperately sad for my colleagues in clinical practice who face a January that is going to be worse than anything we’ve seen so far and at a time when they are now exhausted.”

However, the epidemiologist Prof Mark Woolhouse, of Edinburgh University, counselled caution. “Lockdown interventions buy time, that is true, but they also cause wider harm. Other, more sustainable measures – such as wider use of self-testing – may prove to be more viable.”

The crucial point about making strict interventions was not to prevent the population getting Covid but to avoid too many people getting it at the same time, he added. “I don’t expect to live out my years without getting Covid once or twice some time in the future – and that applies to the rest of the population. Individual risks have not changed. The problem is that it looks as though an awful lot of us are going to encounter it in the next few weeks.”

Other scientists said they were slightly more optimistic. The virologist Prof Ian Jones, of Reading University, said the grimmest scenarios did not take into account the availability of new antiviral drugs that have been shown to lessen the impact of the virus if given soon after infection. “If this better clinical picture is factored in, the link between infection and severe disease may not be as high as assumed here, and the outcome not as alarming.”

This point was backed by Prof Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases expert at the University of East Anglia, who said there was evidence that Omicron was associated with less severe disease and that models overestimated hospital admissions, possibly substantially. “I suspect these models overstate risk of hospitalisation and deaths and the worst case scenarios are unlikely to be seen.”

If the dangers of Omicron turn out to be exaggerated, the prospects of further variants disrupting society cannot be ignored, said the global health researcher Michael Head, of Southampton University, who accused rich countries including the UK of hoarding vaccines instead of sending them to nations with less well-developed health services. “We don’t know how often this coronavirus can change its clothes and emerge with a new look but the risks of new variants emerging are higher in under-vaccinated populations. The coronavirus has not finished with us.”

Omicron appears to 'evade' some protection from COVID vaccines, Fauci says [New York Post, 12 Dec 2021]

By Jackie Salo

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday said “sobering” preliminary studies show the Omicron variant of COVID-19 appears to evade some of the protection provided by vaccines.

But the White House chief medical adviser added that at least booster shots appear to help increase efficacy against the variant.

“The thing that’s important is that [Omicron] appears to be able to evade some of the immune protection of things like monoclonal antibodies, convalescent plasma and the antibodies that are induced by vaccines. That’s the sobering news,” Fauci told ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.”

“The somewhat encouraging news is that preliminary data show that when you get a booster, for example, a third shot of an mRNA, it raises the level of protection high enough that it then does do well against the Omicron,” Fauci added.

Also encouraging are reports that suggest the virus may cause less severe symptoms than the Delta variant, which has become the dominant strain, Fauci said.

“We’re getting anecdotal information … not necessarily confirmed yet, that the level of severity appears to be maybe a bit less than in the Delta. But there are a lot of confounding issues that it may be due to the underlying protection in the community due to prior infections,” Fauci said.

The World Health Organization has designated Omicron a “variant of concern” — the agency’s highest threat level — because of its unprecedented number of mutations to its spike protein, the component of the virus that binds to cells. Delta is also listed as a “variant of concern.”

Despite fears that Omicron’s mutations may make it somewhat resistant to vaccines, Fauci predicted last week that a booster specifically targeted for the variant might not be necessary.
“I’m not so sure that we’re going to have to get a variant-specific boost vaccine to get an adequate protection from Omicron,” Fauci told the health Web site STAT in an interview published Friday.

“Because if you look at protection against variants, it appears to relate to the level of immunity and the breadth of the immunity that any given vaccine can instill on you,” he said.

What Has Omicron Changed? [The New Yorker, 12 Dec 2021]

By Dhruv Khullar

Although the initial findings on the new COVID variant are encouraging, it’s important not to place too much stock in them prematurely.

The COVID-19 pandemic, like every pandemic before it, is a story of equilibriums: between viral biology and human immune response; between news of the pathogen and fear of it; between the damage it inflicts and the social, economic, and political choices we make. A disease persists as a pandemic as long as these forces remain in flux; it becomes endemic when the balance is, more or less, set. The morning after Thanksgiving, Americans awoke to an unsettling revelation: Omicron, a highly mutated version of the coronavirus, with an unprecedented number of genetic changes, had been detected in southern Africa. Since then, it has appeared in dozens of countries across six continents and in at least twenty-two states.

Our equilibrium has shifted again. But what, exactly, has changed?
An early sketch of the Omicron variant is coming into focus. It is, almost certainly, more transmissible than the Delta variant, which itself spreads more than twice as fast as the original strain. In mid-November, South Africa recorded an average of three hundred coronavirus cases a day; only about two per cent of tests returned positive. The country now routinely logs fifteen thousand cases a day, and the test-positivity rate has soared more than tenfold. But Omicron hasn’t overwhelmed the South African health-care system, even in Gauteng Province, where it first started to spread.

Earlier this month, doctors at the Steve Biko/Tshwane District Hospital Complex, a major medical center in Pretoria, released a report describing the clinical condition of COVID patients admitted during the current surge. On December 2nd, there were forty-two patients, of whom just fourteen required supportive oxygen (and not all necessarily because of the virus), and only one was admitted to the I.C.U. In recent weeks, the average length of hospitalization was three days, compared with about nine in the past; the mortality rate has been roughly a third of what it was. “I’ve never seen this picture before,” Fareed Abdullah, the report’s lead author, said. “At this stage of the beginning of the fourth wave, the main presentation is incidental COVID”—patients who came in for other reasons and happened to be carrying the virus.

Although these findings are encouraging, it’s important not to place too much stock in them. Most recent patients at the Tshwane District Hospital have been under the age of fifty—a group with a relatively low risk for severe illness, and, in South Africa, a very low immunization rate. It’s also possible that some of Omicron’s perceived “mildness” is a reflection of its immune-evasiveness: early evidence suggests that it may be nearly three times as likely as other variants to cause repeat infections. If Omicron leads to milder symptoms in people who haven’t previously been infected or vaccinated, that would be reason for comfort; if, instead, it produces illness requiring hospitalization in those who’ve survived a prior infection, that’s cause for concern.

Yet, even if Omicron does inflict less severe disease, we’re still left with a complicated picture. The damage a virus causes is the product of its virulence and its transmissibility: a small reduction in the former coupled with a sharp rise in the latter can be more devastating than the reverse. (The COVID-19 pandemic, compared with the SARS or MERS outbreak, is itself an example of such a phenomenon.) Omicron’s contagiousness could mean that it homes in on vulnerable people—the elderly, the immunocompromised, the unvaccinated—and unleashes a fresh round of misery. On the other hand, a very mild, hyper-contagious variant—the most hopeful, perhaps unrealistic scenario—might be a good thing: huge swaths of people would develop some level of immunity while facing a low risk of serious illness.

The Biden Administration has introduced several efforts designed to place the nation on a surer footing this winter. It has implemented restrictions on travel from a number of countries in southern Africa—which may allow a few extra days or weeks to prepare—and will require all international travellers to present proof of a negative test taken within a day of departing for the United States. It has also extended mask mandates on buses, trains, and planes, which were due to expire in January, and plans to set up hundreds of additional vaccination sites around the country. In the meantime, the U.S. has purchased millions of courses of antiviral pills from Merck and Pfizer; the Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize their use later this month. The F.D.A. has also indicated that it will fast-track the authorization of Omicron-specific vaccines, which could be ready in March.

By then, however, Omicron will, in all likelihood, have displaced Delta as the dominant variant in much of the world, including here, and a central concern has been that its abundant mutations will render current vaccines ineffective. Indeed, some studies suggest that two doses of the Pfizer vaccine produce dramatically fewer antibodies against Omicron than they did against previous variants. But antibodies are only one part of the immune system. They specialize in preventing infection, while T cells, which appear undiminished in the face of Omicron, focus on terminating it. This could mean that, though Omicron may cause many more breakthrough infections, vaccines will still help our immune systems avert serious illness. (Breakthrough infections were already on the rise, but, for the most part, they remain comparatively mild.)

And that’s before a booster shot. Last week, Pfizer announced that a third shot of its vaccine produces a level of protection against Omicron comparable to that against previous variants.
This finding is consistent with a study from South Africa, which found that the antibodies of people who’d been fully vaccinated and had a prior infection remained robust against the new variant. Being “fully vaccinated” may now require two shots plus a booster. It’s regrettable, then, that while the emergence of Omicron has sparked a surge in vaccinations in this country, just sixty per cent of Americans are immunized, and only a quarter of adults have received a booster.

Omicron is poised to take off just as the nation confronts a new Delta wave. More than fifty-five thousand people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, and there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand recorded new cases a day—both substantial increases since Thanksgiving. The federal government is sending health-care workers to support overwhelmed hospitals in Michigan; the governors of Maine and New York have deployed the National Guard to provide assistance. There may still be time to shift the new equilibrium in our favor—to compress the pandemic and start the endemic. But that time is running out.

Zoonotic Bird Flu News since 1 Dec 2021 till 5 Jan 2022

New Dutch H5N1 bird flu outbreak will see 190,000 chickens culled [Yahoo News, 5 Jan 2022]

by Bart Meijer; Editing by Mark Potter

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Around 190,000 chickens on two neighbouring farms in the east of the Netherlands will be culled after the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus was detected on one of the farms, Dutch health authorities said on Tuesday night.

It is the second bird flu outbreak reported in the Netherlands this week, after a similar discovery in the northern province of Friesland led to the culling of around 225,000 chickens there.

Avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, is often carried by wild birds in the autumn and winter.

It has been spreading quickly in Europe in recent months, putting the industry on alert after previous outbreaks led to the culling of tens of millions of birds.

Fourth outbreak of bird flu [The Portugal News, ５ Jan 2022]

A fourth outbreak of bird flu in Portugal has been detected on a chicken and duck farm in Setúbal.

The Directorate General for Food and Veterinary Medicine (DGAV) confirmed this latest outbreak on 3 January and said it involves around 60 birds on a homestead in Santiago do Cacém.

Other outbreaks have been reported on bird farms in Santarém, Palmela (Setúbal) and Óbidos (Leiria) affecting a total 24,239 birds.

Bid to stop bird flu spread in county [The Spalding and South Holland Voice, 5 Jan 2022]

Poultry keepers across Lincolnshire are being urged to step up their efforts in a bid to halt the spread of avian flu.

The UK’s chief veterinary officer Christine Middlemiss is warning people not to be complacent as the country faces its largest ever outbreak of the disease with more than 60 cases confirmed nationally since the start of November.

In Lincolnshire there are currently nine infected sites which have been identified.

The government has introduced new housing measures which means that any birds, including chickens, geese and ducks, must be kept indoors while following strict biodiversity measures.

“If you do not do this, the disease could kill your birds and you could be fined,” said the chief vet.

“Wild birds migrating to the UK from mainland Europe during the winter months, and other wildlife, spread the disease so it is vital to not allow wild birds to mix with your chickens, ducks, geese or other birds.

“People can also spread the disease on their clothes and shoes, so before going into bird enclosures you should wash your hands and change or disinfect your footwear,” she added,
The UK health security has confirmed the risk to public health is very low and it doesn’t affect the consumption of poultry or eggs.

“Many poultry keepers have excellent biosecurity standards but unfortunately the number of cases we are seeing suggests that not enough is being done to keep bird flu out.

“Whether you keep just a few birds or thousands, you must take action now to protect your birds from this highly infectious disease,” said the chief vet.

It is also important that people do not touch or pick up dead or sick birds – including, swans, geese or ducks. Contact the Defra helpline on 03459 335577 for further help or advice.

Bird keepers should report signs of disease on 0300 00 200301.

Poultry keepers must also:
* Net or house all poultry to keep them separate from wild birds
* Clean and disinfect clothing, equipment and vehicles before and after contact with poultry and captive birds
* Change footwear before entering sheds housing poultry or captive birds – or thoroughly disinfect.
* Reduce the movement of people, equipment and vehicles from areas where the birds are kept
* Minimise direct and indirect contact between poultry and wild birds.

10,000 ducks culled as bird flu hits Pallippad, Ambalappuzha again [The New Indian Express, 5 Jan 2022]

The avian influenza virus was found on the samples sent to the National Institute of High Security Animal Disease (NIHSAD) for testing.

ALAPPUZHA: The Rapid Response Team (RRT) appointed by the Animal Husbandry Department began culling ducks in the bird flu affected areas of Pallippad and Ambalappuzha North panchayats of the district on Tuesday. Over 10,000 ducks were culled on the day.

The avian influenza virus was found on the samples sent to the National Institute of High Security Animal Disease (NIHSAD) for testing. The samples of ducks reared by Shinu Abraham, of Parayankeri in Pallippad, and Siyo Thomas, a native of Chennithala, who caged ducks at Ambalappuzha North panchayat were sent to NIHSAD. There are around 7,100 ducks in the 1-km radius of the hotspot area of Pallippad and 11,000 in Ambalappuzha, said an official.
Meanwhile, District Collector A Alexander convened a meeting to take stock of the situation.

The outbreak has so far been confirmed in seven grama panchayats in Alappuzha. Avian flu was first confirmed in ducks at Kunnumma South (ward 10) in Thakazhy panchayat on December 8. Later, it was reported from Nedumudi and Karuvatta on December 14, followed by cases in Purakkad and Cheruthana.

Last week, more than 16,000 ducks within a 1-km radius of another hotspot in Ambalappuzha North panchayat were also culled. The RRTs culled around 90,000 birds, mostly ducks, in the bird flu affected areas of the district in December.

The duck farmers of the district suffered losses after the spread of the disease in Kuttanad.

The sale of ducks and eggs also nosedived during the Christmas-New Year season.

More protection zones introduced as bird flu confirmed in Lazonby [ITV News, ５ Jan 2022]

Bird flu has been confirmed at a premises near Lazonby in Cumbria.

A three kilometre protection zone and a 10 kilometre surveillance zone has been put in place, with temporary road signs along the boundaries.

These restrict access to locations where birds are kept and impose restrictions on the movement of birds.

People in direct contact with the premises have been contacted and offered appropriate preventative treatment.

Other precautions include the humane culling of birds at risk of infection.

I want to reassure residents that the risk to public health from avian flu is very low. However, it is important people do not touch or pick up any sick or dead birds to avoid spreading the virus, which can affect humans in rare cases.

Colin Cox, Director of Public Health for Cumbria County Council

It's the third confirmed case of Avian Influenza in the county, following previous cases near Silecroft, Copeland in November, and Aspatria, Allerdale in December. Protection and surveillance zones remain in place at both locations.

It was also detected at commercial premises near Gretna in Dumfries and Galloway. The zones for this one extend over the Scottish border, meaning measures will impact people in areas near Longtown, Cumbria.

In response to the UK-wide outbreak of Avian Flu, nationwide housing measures came into force on Monday 29 November, meaning it’s now a legal requirement for all bird keepers across the UK to keep their birds indoors and to follow strict biosecurity measures to limit the spread of and eradicate the disease.

Bird flu: Winsford swans and geese put down over suspected outbreak [BBC News, 5 Jan 2022]

A possible outbreak of bird flu is being investigated after 46 wild birds had to be euthanised at a marina.

The RSPCA said 37 geese and nine swans had been found "showing signs of distress" at Winsford Marina in Cheshire since Friday.

A spokeswoman said the birds "were in such a suffering state that the kindest thing to do was to put them to sleep".

She said the deaths had been referred to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The UK is currently facing its largest ever outbreak of the H5N1 virus, with over 60 cases confirmed since the start of November.

The first detection of the strain was in rescued swans and captive poultry at a swan sanctuary in Worcester on 15 October.

The chief veterinary officer told the BBC in December that there was a "phenomenal level" of avian flu in the UK, following the extension of an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone, requiring all bird owners to keep their flocks indoors, which had been introduced on 3 November.

The RSPCA spokeswoman said officers had "attended the Winsford area during the past week following reports that a number of swans appeared to be showing signs of distress".

"Unfortunately, a number of the birds appeared to be very sick and in an extremely poor condition and sadly, the kindest option was for these birds to be put to sleep," she said.

The RSPCA spokeswoman said Defra and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) were "aware of the situation and a number of the birds have been sent for testing for bird flu".

"We will continue to monitor the situation and offer help where required."

She added that in line with government guidance, the RSPCA was "advising the public not to touch, move or transport sick or dead birds amid a growing number of incidents of the highly infectious avian influenza virus".

A Defra spokeswoman said the department was "aware of a number of wild bird deaths reported from several locations in England".

"These deaths are currently under investigation as part of the APHA's on-going wild bird surveillance programme," she said.

She added that dead wild waterfowl or other dead wild birds should be reported to Defra and "members of the public should not pick up any dead or visibly sick birds".

Bird flu in Lincolnshire: One million culled in bid to halt spread [BBC News, 5 Jan 2022]

About one million birds have been culled to stop the spread of bird flu in Lincolnshire, the BBC estimates.

The virus was first confirmed in Lincolnshire on 11 December and 12 outbreaks have so far been confirmed in the county.

It comes amid England's largest outbreak of the H5N1 virus, with 63 confirmed cases since November.

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has not confirmed the number of culled birds.

Professor Ian Brown, of the Animal and Plant Health Agency, said: "There is a high density of poultry farms in Lincolnshire and the virus has found its way in because it has been able to breach the biosecurity barrier of the farms."

The estimated number of birds culled at each farm is based on the unit size multiplied by the number of birds allowed per square metre, the BBC said.

The latest outbreak of the virus was first discovered in North Yorkshire on 21 November, and was detected in Lincolnshire in December.

Exclusion zones have been put in place around Lincolnshire sites, including near Mablethorpe, Alford and South Elkington.

There have also been two outbreaks near Pocklington, in East Yorkshire.

An Avian Influenza Prevention Zone, requiring all bird owners to keep their flocks indoors, is in force across the UK, said Defra.

The UK's chief veterinary officer Dr Christine Middlemiss has said: "We are seeing a growing number of bird flu cases both on commercial farms and in backyard birds right across the country, with a high number of cases in Lincolnshire."

Wild birds migrate to the UK from mainland Europe during the winter so it is vital to not allow wild birds to mix with chickens, ducks, geese or other birds, she said.

The infection could also be spread on people's clothes and shoes, she added.

Bird flu: 107,000 turkeys infected in fifth outbreak this week [The Jerusalem Post, 5 Jan 2022]

By TZVI JOFFRE

In total, about 232,000 birds have been found to be infected with H5N1 avian influenza since Sunday.

About 107,000 turkeys were found to be infected with avian influenza in an outbreak discovered at a farm in Aviel, located northeast of Caesarea, the latest one in the continuing spread of the virus around northern Israel.

This is the fifth outbreak reported since just the beginning of this week. In total, about 232,000 birds have been found to be infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) virus since Sunday.

"The current wave of bird flu incidents has been with us for about three weeks. Throughout this period, ministry workers continue to work night and day to eradicate the spread of the virus, and continue to protect our health and the health of the animals around us," said Agriculture Minister Oded Forer. "The workers are available and act immediately while minimizing the suffering of animals."

The veterinary services are operating in an emergency format and continuing to actively locate outbreaks in northern Israel and isolate the hotspots.

Forer recently instructed his office to raise the egg quotas for farmers in Israel and to open the market for imports due to expectations of an egg shortage in the coming months. The minister is operating an inter-ministerial command room to handle the continuing bird flu outbreak in the country.

Over 8,000 migratory cranes have died due to the virus in a continuing outbreak in the Hula Valley. A number of additional outbreaks have been reported at farms in northern Israel in recent weeks and months.

On Monday, Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg signed a ban on hunting until the end of the hunting season on January 31 due to the risk of humans being infected by sick birds in close contact.

Hundreds of thousands of birds migrate through Israel on their way to Africa during this season, raising the risk of bird flu outbreaks. The Agriculture Ministry has called on all farmers to follow directives and ensure that their birds are kept separate from wild birds.

Amid the spike in bird flu outbreaks, the Health Ministry stressed that the public should only buy poultry and eggs from regulated places and ensure that eggs have a seal of inspection – and make sure to properly, hygienically and thoroughly cook poultry and eggs and keep a distance from wild birds.

A large number of bird flu outbreaks have been reported throughout Europe, Africa and Asia in recent weeks, mostly due to the H5N1 subtype, according to the World Organization for Animal Health.

The OIE has urged countries to increase surveillance for HPAI outbreaks, as the virus has been reported in over 40 countries since July.

The H5N1, H5N3, H5N4, H5N5, H5N6 and H5N8 subtypes of HPAI are circulating in bird and poultry populations across the globe, sparking concern at OIE which called this an “unprecedented genetic variability of subtypes... creating an epidemiologically challenging landscape.”

Germany’s Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, told the German Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) that Europe is experiencing its “strongest avian flu epidemic ever.”

The institute added that “there is no end in sight” as the virus spreads throughout the continent and around the world, with new cases reported on a daily basis.

New Dutch H5N1 bird flu outbreak will see 190000 chickens culled [WTVB News, 5 Jan 2022]

by Bart Meijer & Mark Potter

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Around 190,000 chickens on two neighbouring farms in the east of the Netherlands will be culled after the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus was detected on one of the farms, Dutch health authorities said on Tuesday night.

It is the second bird flu outbreak reported in the Netherlands this week, after a similar discovery in the northern province of Friesland led to the culling of around 225,000 chickens there.

Avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, is often carried by wild birds in the autumn and winter.

It has been spreading quickly in Europe in recent months, putting the industry on alert after previous outbreaks led to the culling of tens of millions of birds.

New bird flu has higher risk of spread to humans – animal health director [WTVB News, 5 Jan 2022]

By Sybille de La Hamaide

PARIS (Reuters) – A wave of bird flu in Asia and Europe has a greater risk of spreading to humans because of a high number of variants, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said.

The spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has raised concern among governments and the poultry industry after previous outbreaks led to the culling of tens of millions of birds and trade restrictions.

“This time the situation is more difficult and more risky because we see more variants emerge, which make them harder to follow,” OIE Director General Monique Eloit told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

“Eventually the risk is that it mutates or that it mixes with a human flu virus that can be transmitted between humans then suddenly it takes on a new dimension,” she added.

Fifteen countries had reported outbreaks of bird flu in poultry between October and the end of December, mostly the H5N1 strain. Italy was the worst hit in Europe with 285 outbreaks and nearly four million birds culled, OIE data showed.

Outbreaks generally start in the autumn, when the infection is spread by migrating wild birds.
H5N1 is one of the few bird flu strains that has passed to humans. In total around 850 people have been reported to be infected with the strain, of which half died, the OIE said.

Last year several people were infected by the H5N6 strain in China, raising concern among some experts, who say a previously circulating strain appears to have changed and may be more infectious to people.

Eloit stressed, however, that most countries had learned to contain outbreaks and transmissions to humans would be sporadic as bird flu is usually passed through close contact.

“If there are one, two or three humans infected it is worrying but it is not necessary to cry wolf too quickly about the risks of extension. It will depend on how the people have been infected,” she said.

Memory of the day: Hong Kong begins the killing of 1.25 million chickens to stop the spread of bird flu in 1997 [Egypttoday, 29 Dec 2021]

CAIRO – 29 December 2021: In the following lines, ET sheds light on the most important world events that took place on December 29.

1890 - Wounded Knee Massacre erupts, in which at least 150 Lakota Indians are killed by the US Army.

1997 - Hong Kong begins the killing of 1,250,000 chickens to stop the spread of bird flu.

2001 - A big fire in the historical district in the center of the Peruvian capital Lima kills 280 people and injures thousands.

High pathogenic avian influenza detected in Canada [The Poultry Site, 29 Dec 2021]

The outbreak took place on an exhibition farm

On 20 December, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confirmed the presence of high pathogenic avian influenza, subtype H5N1, at a multi-species exhibition farm in the Avalon Peninsula on the island portion of Newfoundland and Labrador.

As the infected birds were located on an exhibition farm, and no other cases resembling Avian Influenza have been reported in the vicinity of the farm, Canada's status as 'free from AI' remains in place in accordance with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) guidance, reported CFIA.

The exhibition farm does not produce birds for sale.

Initial tests for the disease were conducted on 16 December by the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, after the farm experienced sudden deaths of birds over several days.

In an abundance of caution, the CFIA has placed the farm under quarantine and established a 10 km zone with movement control measures and enhanced biosecurity to limit any potential spread of the disease.

Avian influenza circulates naturally in avian fauna and recent detections of high pathogenic AI in Europe indicate an even higher risk of the disease in North American poultry flocks this year. CFIA said this makes it more important than ever for anyone raising poultry to remain vigilant against AI and ensure they have effective biosecurity measures in place. Biosecurity is a key tool for preventing the transmission of this disease to North American farm birds.

While this detection should have no impact on trade, it does serve as a strong reminder that avian influenza is spreading across the globe, and that anyone with farm animals must practice good biosecurity habits.

Meanwhile, officials from the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the CFIA, and the owner of the infected birds are working closely together to manage this particular situation.

Slovenia reports H5N1 avian influenza case [The Poultry Site, 28 Dec 2021]

The outbreak took place on a small poultry farm

Slovenia reported on Monday an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza at a small poultry farm in the east of the country, the STA news agency reported, quoting the country's agency for food safety and veterinary and plant protection.

A veterinarian reported on Sunday an increase in deaths of poultry at a farm in Slovenska Bistrica. The authorities said all necessary measures have been implemented in infected areas and called on farmers to immediately report any new suspicious cases, reported Reuters.

Many cases of H5N1 avian influenza have been reported across Europe since the beginning of December.

South Korea reports another suspected bird flu case [News Today, 28 Dec 2021]

Seoul: South Korea on Monday reported another suspected case of highly pathogenic avian influenza at a duck farm in a southwestern county, the Agriculture Ministry said.

According to the ministry, the latest case was reported at the farm raising about 10,000 ducks in Busan, 280 km south of Seoul, Yonhap news agency reported.

There is no poultry farm within one kilometer of the farm in question. Health authorities have cordoned off the site and taken other precautionary measures to prevent the potential spread of the disease outside the farm, the authorities said.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza is very contagious among birds and can cause severe illness and even death, especially in domestic poultry. The country has been reporting a slew of bird flu cases since November this year.

Meanwhile in northern Israel, 5,000 cranes were found dead at the Hula Lake Reserve, amid an outbreak of avian flu that has also seen the culling of more than half a million chickens and turkeys, the Times of Israel reported.

Three other outbreaks of bird flu were discovered in chicken coops in Ein HaHoresh in the Hefer Valley, the Ram-On moshav in Gilboa and in Givat Yoav in the Golan Heights, Ynet reported on Monday.

The centres have been isolated and there is active monitoring of additional farms in the area.

Bird flu outbreak in Israel kills more than 5200 cranes, with mass culling of poultry underway [The Washington Post, 28 Dec 2021]

By Miriam Berger

Israel is battling the coronavirus and a surge in flu cases. But it’s an outbreak of the H5N1 avian flu among migratory cranes and domestic poultry that is drawing global concern.

The bird flu, as its also called, is spreading fast in northern Israel, where at least 5,200 cranes have died of the disease and hundreds of thousands of chickens have been culled in an effort to contain its advance.

The avian flu is confined mostly to birds. It rarely jumps to humans, but when it does it can be lethal. As of October, the World Health Organization had confirmed 863 cases of H5N1 in people, 456 of whom died, around the world since 2003.

Israel has not recorded any infections in humans this year. Those who have possibly been exposed to the virus are receiving preventive antiviral treatments.

Other countries, including Britain, China, Norway and South Korea, have also reported major or higher-than-unusual H5N1 outbreaks in recent months. In November, Britain declared a bird flu prevention zone, requiring all farmers to follow stricter biosecurity protocols after several outbreaks.

Israel is a central stop along the route of many species of birds migrating from Europe and Asia to Africa, a convergence that raises the risk of avian flu spreading from wild birds to captive poultry populations in the country.

Each year, about 500,000 cranes migrate through Israel, some 30,000 of which stayed to winter over there this year. The yearly stopover, often part of journeys lasting thousands of miles, draws the attention of bird enthusiasts, who travel to observe the large, long-legged and long-necked birds.

The H5N1 outbreak has wrought “the most serious damage to wildlife in the history of the country,” Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg said in a tweet Sunday.

She shared a photo of dead cranes peppering a lake in Israel’s Hula Nature Reserve, a hot spot for migratory birds.

“The extent of the damage is still unclear,” Zandberg said.

Israel reported its first cases of bird flu in 2006, and has seen outbreaks nearly every year since, according to the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The extent of this year’s train of transmission is not yet clear, but regulations require poultry and wild birds be kept separated to limit the chance of transference.

Word of Israel’s latest outbreak began to spread on Dec. 19, when the Agriculture Ministry reported that H5N1 had been detected in a farming community, Margaliot, near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. The ministry said it had closed off the area and halted egg production.

Crowded and unregulated chicken coops are a “ticking bomb” for developing diseases, Agriculture Minister Oded Feror said in a statement at the time.

That same day, Israeli media reported that about 100 cranes had died in a bird flu outbreak in Hula Lake in a nature reserve in northern Israel. Authorities closed down the area to the public and days later temporarily shut the entire nature reserve.

Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority shared photos of workers in hazmat suits collecting the bodies of dead cranes from the water.

In the following days, outbreaks were detected in at least three other farms in the north as the Agriculture Ministry underwent mass testing.

The parks authority said Thursday that an estimated 1 in 5 cranes in Israel were likely to be infected with the virus, Israeli media reported. There have also been reports of deaths from the virus among other bird species.

Israel’s Agricultural Ministry has warned the public to buy only eggs with the required regulatory stamp and to consume thoroughly cooked eggs to prevent any further spread. The public has also been warned to keep a distance from wild birds.

On Tuesday, the ministry told chicken farmers in Margaliot to monitor cats that spend time around the coops, as felines can also become infected with the virus.

Israeli media outlets reported that the mass culling of chickens has created a shortage of between 15 million and 20 million eggs a month. About 200 million eggs are consumed monthly in Israel.

Bird flu detected in dead knots washed up on the Wadden Sea [Phys.org, 27 Dec 2021]

On 17 and 18 December 2021, a few hundred dead knots (Calidris canutus) were discovered on Schiermonnikoog and in Oost-Groningen. At the behest of the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR) examined a few dead knots, an oystercatcher, and a curlew who were found in the same location. The avian influenza H5N1 virus was detected in the birds examined. It is suspected to be the highly pathogenic variant, but this is under further investigation.

Most of the dead birds were found along the shoreline. The knots most likely died above the sea, and some of them washed ashore. The Wadden Sea is an important resting area for wild birds in the Netherlands. Knots also winter in the Netherlands, on mud flats of tidal areas, sometimes in enormous groups.

It is not the first time that large groups of dead wild birds with avian influenza have been found in the Wadden Sea. At the end of April 2021, hundreds of dead wild geese, barnacle geese in particular, were found along the coast of Friesland and Groningen. HPAI H5N1 viruses, as well as some HPAI H5 viruses of which the N-type could not be determined, were detected in the barnacle geese examined.

Slovenia reports H5N1 bird flu in small poultry farm [WTVB News, 27 Dec 2021]

by Daria Sito-Sucic & Louise Heavens

SARAJEVO (Reuters) – Slovenia reported on Monday an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus at a small poultry farm in the east of the country, the STA news agency reported, quoting the country’s agency for food safety and veterinary and plant protection.

A veterinarian reported on Sunday an increase in deaths of poultry at a farm in Slovenska Bistrica. The authorities said all necessary measures have been implemented in infected areas and called on farmers to immediately report any new suspicious cases.

Many cases of H5N1 bird flu have been reported across Europe since the beginning of December.

Massive New Bird Flu Outbreak Could Be 2022's Deadly Pandemic [Daily Beast, 27 Dec 2021]

BY Noga Tarnopolsky

In the Galilee, migrating cranes infected with H5N1 are dying by the thousand, raising fears of a global pandemic.

Israel’s National Security Council has assumed control of a massive bird flu outbreak in the Galilee, which scientists warn could become a “mass disaster” for humans.

Over half a billion migrating birds pass through the area every year, heading for warm African winters or balmy European summers, making this a catastrophic location for a major bird flu outbreak—right at the nexus of global avian travel.

The virus can be deadly if it infects people. The World Health Organization says more than half of the confirmed 863 human cases it has tracked since 2003 proved fatal. Most strains or variants of avian flu, H5N1, are relatively difficult to transmit to people.

Yossi Leshem, one of Israel’s most renowned ornithologists, told The Daily Beast, however, that it is the ability of these viruses to mutate into new strains that poses such a threat, as we have seen with the coronavirus.

“There could be a mutation that also infects people and turns into a mass disaster,” said Leshem, a zoologist at Tel Aviv University and director of the International Center for the Study of Bird Migration at Latrun.

So far, at least 5,400 wild cranes have died infected with the new H5N1 avian flu, which Israeli authorities fear could expand into a global emergency.

Of the 30,000 Eurasian cranes passing this winter at the Hula Nature Reserve, 17 percent are dead, and scientists fear the worst for their surviving brethren, at least 10,000 of which appear to be ailing. The infection of the cranes is the same strain of avian flu which infected chicken coops throughout northern Israel, and led to the cull in recent days of nearly 1 million birds.

Israelis will be without their beloved chicken schnitzel—and without eggs—until a supply chain of imported birds is established.

The deaths of thousands of wild birds in the Hula Nature Reserve, one of the world’s premier bird sanctuaries, “is an extraordinary event with global ramifications,” warned Tel Aviv University Professor of Zoology Noga Kronfeld Shor in an interview with Reshet Bet Radio.

Shor, who is also the chief scientist at Israel’s Ministry of the Environment, noted that the carcasses of other waterbirds, such as pelicans and egrets, have already been found.
Israelis have been warned not to approach any wild bird that looks sick, and not to touch any bird droppings.

Yoav Motro, a specialist in vertebrates and locusts at Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture, said that for now, H5N1 is presenting “like the opposite of COVID. Compared to COVID, the chances of [humans] catching this are very, very slight—but unlike COVID, the risks of dying from it if you do catch it are very high.”

“It is a tragic ecological event,” he said. “And we simply do not know how it will end, or where it will lead.”

Israeli scientists don’t yet know the full scale of the die-off in Israel because of the dangers inherent in fishing around marshes and wetlands. Observing birds that shy away from human contact and the urgent matter of retrieving bird carcasses is proving even more challenging because of the lack of waterproof protective gear currently available in the arid country.

While the disaster is evident in the Hula Valley, in Israel’s fertile north, crane mortality has also been observed in other sites, though not yet in Jerusalem, according to Yotam Bashan of the Jerusalem Bird Observatory.

“There is no way to know what is going to happen,” Motro said in an interview with The Daily Beast. “When you identify avian flu in chicken coops you kill all the chickens and disinfect the coops. In the wild, at this level of infection, I don't know where it will lead. I’m worried.”

Shalom Bar Tal, an experienced wildlife photographer, told The Daily Beast that he was one of the only people allowed nocturnal access to observe the dead and dying birds. “It could turn into an ecological disaster no less significant than the corona epidemic,” he said.

For now, no Israeli is known to be infected with H5N1, but Israelis who were exposed to wild birds are taking the antiviral Tamiflu.

Both Motro and Bar Tal noted the heartrending scenes of weak, infected cranes leaning over their dead. Cranes mate for life and live in strong family units, Motro said. “That means that when one dies, the rest of the family—I don’t know how to define it—but it mourns.”

The cranes’ close physical proximity to one another and tight-knit family structure almost ensures, he said, that when one crane dies, “a close family member will be the next to die.”
“There is no treatment,” he said, “no way to help.”

We can only hope it doesn’t mutate and jump species.

Flu Scan for Dec 27, 2021 [CIDRAP, 27 Dec 2021]

US flu markers rise higher; Avian flu in 3 countries

US flu activity shows another jump, first two peds deaths reported

United States flu activity jumped again the week ending Dec 18, with eight states reporting high or very high activity and the first two pediatric flu deaths reported for the season, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its regular update.

Most flu markers showed steady rises, with eastern and central states seeing the biggest increases, with H3N2 as the dominant strain and infections continuing to affect a wider range of adult age groups after illnesses targeted younger people earlier in the season.

States or jurisdictions reporting high or very high activity—a marker that reflects clinic visits for flulike illness—include New Mexico, Kansas, North Dakota, Indiana, Tennessee, Georgia, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia. The CDC has said that other respiratory viruses are circulating and may be influencing flulike illness patterns.

Hospitalizations are starting to rise, and 1,265 people were admitted to the hospital for lab-confirmed flu during the week that ended Dec 18. Regarding the first two pediatric flu deaths of the season, one involved H3N2 and occurred during the week that ended on Dec 11. The other occurred the following week and was linked to unsubtyped influenza A.

The CDC also provided its first genetic flu virus characterization, noting that most H3N2 viruses are closely related to the vaccine strain, but there are some antigenic differences that are emerging as H3N2 viruses continue to evolve.

Dec 27 CDC FluView

Canada, Portugal, and Taiwan report H5 outbreaks in birds.

In the latest avian influenza developments, Canada reported a highly pathogenic H5N1 outbreak in captive birds at a multispecies exhibition farm on the island portion of New Foundland and Labrador, and Portugal reported more H5N1 in poultry.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed H5N1 after the farm experienced sudden deaths of birds over several days. The event is considered a nonpoultry event, and the facility doesn't produce birds for sale.

Portugal's outbreak began on Dec 22 at a commercial turkey farm in Leiria region, killing 1,459 of 18,100 birds, according to a notification from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

Elsewhere, Taiwan reported highly pathogenic H5N2 events in poultry and wild birds, according to separate notices from the OIE. There were nine poultry outbreaks, mostly at farms, but also at a slaughterhouse and at a site where discarded chickens were found. The outbreaks occurred at different locations in November and December, and taken together, the virus killed 2,755 of 66,408 susceptible birds. Taiwan also reported separate detections of H5N2 and H5N1 in wild birds.

Dec 22 CFIA statement
Dec 24 OIE report on H5N1 in Portugal
Dec 24 OIE report in H5N2 in Taiwanese poultry
Dec 24 OIE report on H5N2 in Taiwanese wild birds
Dec 23 OIE report on H5N1 in Taiwanese wild birds

In its latest avian influenza overview, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said between Sep 18 and Dec 8, 27 European Union countries and the UK reported 867 highly pathogenic detections in poultry, wild, and captive birds. Italy had the most events in poultry, followed by Hungary and Poland.

It said the frequent incursions in poultry flocks raised concerns about biosecurity gaps. Genetic analysis shows that viruses belong to clade 2.3.4.4b. Tests suggest H5N1 viruses in Sweden, Germany, Poland, and the UK have been circulating in Europe since October 2020. However, viruses from North, Central, and East Europe show a novel reassortant that was introduced in October 2021.

Also, H5N1 was found in mammals in Sweden, Estonia, and Finland, and in some instances, the viruses have an adapative marker associated with increased virulence and replication in mammals.

Bird flu: Essex wildlife hospital says 10 swans have died in area ‘amid outbreak’ [Evening Standard, 16 Dec 2021]

By Josh Salisbury

An Essex animal hospital says at least ten swans have died in the surrounding area amid a suspected bird flu outbreak.

The South Essex Wildlife Hospital, based in Orsett, said it was forced to put down a dying bird who had been taken home by a witness “who couldn't bear to watch the bird suffering and being eaten alive by rats”.

Official advice is to “not touch or pick up any dead or visibly sick birds”.

The injured bird later tested positive for avian influenza, the hospital said. It said that eight dead swans had been found in Hullbridge, Essex, and two more in Canvey.

Sharing pictures of the animals, the hospital said: “The photos show the dead and dying swans suffering from avian influenza at Hullbridge Essex.

“We are powerless to help them due to the risk of transmitting the virus to our hospital and causing an outbreak in our animals.”

It added that “the situation has been repeatedly reported to the authorities and we await further instruction”.

According to an assessment from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) dated December 13, 320 wild birds have tested positive for the “highly pathogenic avian influenza” to date.

Many of those cases were identified in mute swans in England, with 143 confirmed cases. The analysis stated the risk level to wild birds was “very high”.

New housing requirements were introduced on November 29 for bird keepers across the UK to keep their poultry and captive birds indoors to limit the spread of the disease.

The risk to human health from the virus is very low, states official guidance.

Wild birds are thought to spread the disease to captive birds, and the new measures were brought into force after bird flu was uncovered In a number of poultry locations.

When bird flu is confirmed or suspected in poultry or other captive birds, ‘lockdown’ control zones are put in place around the infected premises to prevent the spread of the disease.

Aomori prefecture records first bird flu outbreak since 2016 [The Japan Times, 12 Dec 2021]

AOMORI – Aomori Prefecture said Sunday that it has confirmed an outbreak of avian influenza believed to be highly pathogenic at a chicken farm in the town of Sannohe.

It is the prefecture’s first bird flu outbreak at a chicken farm since 2016.

At the farm, about 7,000 birds will be culled.

The prefectural government has banned 26 farms within 10 kilometers of the Sannohe farm from moving eggs and chickens out of the area. Two of the 26 are in the neighboring prefecture of Iwate.

The Sannohe farm reported an increase in the deaths of chickens there to a local livestock health center Saturday.

Infections were confirmed through testing, and subsequent genetic testing found that the virus is likely to be highly pathogenic, according to the prefecture.

White-tailed eagle found dead on Isle of Skye tests positive for bird flu [The National, 11 Dec 2021]

By Xander Richards

A WHITE-TAILED Sea Eagle found dead on the Isle of Skye tested positive for bird flu, reports say.

The eagle was found dead on the island's northern Trotternish peninsula - which has long been a stronghold for the species.

Local website Skye Birds reported that analysis from Scotland's Rural University College (SRUC) pathology unit found the bird was positive for avian influenza.

The site said that, while details are awaiting publication by the UK Government’s Animal Plant and Health Agency (APHA), it is believed to be the first case in Scotland involving a White-Tailed Eagle.

White-Tailed Eagles are the largest bird of prey in the UK, growing slightly longer and heavier than their Golden cousins.

Reports have said the death may be linked to the fact that eagles “predate and will eat carrion of Greylag Geese”.

The news comes as bird flu was found at a third premises in Scotland amid the “largest-ever outbreak in the UK”.

The Scottish Government said that the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 was confirmed at premises near Annan in Dumfries and Galloway on December 9.

A 3km protection zone and 10km surveillance zone (SZ) have been declared around the premises, which means movement restrictions within these zones – on things such as poultry, carcasses, eggs, used poultry litter, and manure – to prevent any further spread of disease.
Avian flu was previously confirmed at premises near Gretna in Dumfries and Galloway on December 3 and at premises near Arbroath, Angus, on November 4.

Officials said public health advice is that the risk to human health from the virus is very low.

Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon said: “We know that avian influenza is here in Scotland. In order to try to keep their birds safe and stop the spread of the disease, producers and bird keepers are reminded to comply with the order to house birds, which came into effect on November 29, or to ensure their birds are kept separate from wild birds.

“It’s important that the public remain vigilant and report any findings of dead wild birds to Defra’s national telephone helpline. Do not touch or pick up any dead or sick birds that you find.”

Bird keepers have been told to report any suspicion of disease in Scotland to their local Field Services Office.

Scotland’s chief veterinary officer Sheila Voas said: “We have already made clear that all bird keepers – whether major businesses or small keepers with just a few birds – must ensure that their biosecurity is up to scratch to protect their birds from disease.

“Any dead wild swans, geese, ducks or birds of prey, or five or more dead wild birds of other species (including gulls) in the same location at the same time, should be reported to Defra’s national telephone helpline.

“Public health advice is that the risk to human health from the virus is very low and food standards bodies advise that avian influenzas pose a very low food safety risk for UK consumers, and it does not affect the consumption of poultry products including eggs.”

Minister confirms UK has been hit by record bird flu outbreak [The Guardian, 9 Dec 2021]

By Matthew Weaver and Severin Carrell

George Eustice says restrictions in place since start of November require all birds to be kept indoors

The UK has been hit by a record outbreak of avian flu that has led to 500,000 captive birds being culled in recent months.

The environment secretary, George Eustice, told the House of Commons: “This year we are now seeing the largest ever outbreak in the UK of avian influenza, with 36 confirmed cases.”

He said an avian influenza prevention zone had been declared across the UK at the start of November, requiring strict biosecurity measures and all birds to be kept indoors.

He added: “Our chief veterinary officer continues to lead the response to this episode.”

Earlier the chief vet, Christine Middlemiss, said she was “very concerned about what’s happening”.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme after confirming more outbreaks overnight, she said: “We now have a total of 40 infected premises in the UK – that’s a really high number for the time of year for anything we’ve experienced before.” By comparison, there were 26 outbreaks last winter.

Middlemiss said: “All the birds on the premises have to be culled because of the ongoing risk of infection that they pose. The total number is something like half a million will now have been culled.”

She said food supplies would not be hit. “That sounds a huge number, and for those keepers affected it is really devastating, but it’s a relatively very small number in terms of egg supply, meat, chicken and so on.”

The disease is spread by migratory wild birds from Europe, where high infections levels are also being recorded.

A rare white-tailed eagle found dead on Skye is among the wild birds to have tested positive for avian flu, after a postmortem by the pathology unit at Scotland’s Rural College.

It is thought to be the first detected avian flu case involving an eagle in Scotland. The adult eagle, from a well-established territory on Trotternish, was found dead on 14 November.

Ornithologists believe it may have fed on infected greylag geese.

Middlemiss said almost 300 wild birds had been found with the disease at more than 80 locations. There was “a lot of virus out there”, she said. The risk to human health is low but infected birds should not be touched.

She said: “It used to be that we would have a reasonable-sized outbreak and then have two or three quiet years. But that’s not happening now. We’re seeing this across the whole of Europe.

We need to understand better why we’re getting these ongoing infections every year.”

Asked if the disease was still spreading, Middlemiss said: “We’re continuing to get the new detections. I confirmed another two last night and that’s the rate we’ve been going at for the last week or so. We’re seeing this as a huge pressure of infection from our wild birds.”

Middlemiss urged people with garden bird feeders to “practice routine hygiene precautions” including proper handwashing.

She added: “If you keep chickens and you want to feed wild birds, you need to make sure that everything is completely scrupulously clean and absolutely separate so that you don’t take infection into your own birds and make them sick.”

Asked if the climate crisis was to blame for the increased infection, Middlemiss said: “We don’t know specifically, but it’s certainly one of the thoughts that our experts are having. The birds migrate to the north of Russia over the summer and mix with other birds on other global flight pathways and exchange the viruses. So it’s quite plausible that with climate change and change in pathways that different mixing is going on.”

What is bird flu and why is it back in the news? [The Guardian, 9 Dec 2021]

BY Kevin Rawlinson and Matthew Weaver

With the UK hit by a record outbreak, here’s a quick guide to the viral disease also known as avian influenza

What is avian flu?
Avian influenza, also known as bird flu, is a contagious viral disease in animals, caused by a virus loosely related to human influenza. Some strains of the disease have been passed to humans but this is very rare, and usually occurs only after very close contact with infected birds or animals. While all bird species and, less commonly, pigs are thought to be susceptible, domestic poultry flocks are especially vulnerable to infection. Outbreaks can rapidly result in epidemics among bird populations. Public health authorities are concerned about the potential of the virus to mutate into subtypes capable of causing human disease. As a result they warn there is always a threat of a new influenza pandemic emerging.

Why is it in the news again?
The UK has been hit by a record outbreak that has resulted in 500,000 captive birds being culled this autumn. An avian influenza prevention zone was declared across the UK at the start of November, requiring strict biosecurity measures and all birds to be kept indoors.

What are the most dangerous strains?
The NHS says there are four strains that have caused particular concern in recent years. The first, identified in 1997, was H5N1, followed by H7N9 in 2013, H5N6 the following year and H5N8 in 2016. The H5N1 form has been the cause of most concern in recent years and the UK government has said particular safety measures were put in place in parts of North Yorkshire on 21 November after confirmed and suspected cases of that strain in poultry in the area.

Where has it appeared?
The chief veterinary officer, Christine Middlemiss, has said there are 40 infected premises in the UK. They include 38 in Great Britain – of which 33 are in England – and two in Northern Ireland. By comparison, there were 26 outbreaks last winter.

A rare white-tailed eagle found dead on Skye is among the wild birds to have tested positive, after a postmortem by the pathology unit at Scotland’s Rural College. It is thought to be the first detected case involving an eagle in Scotland. The adult eagle, from a well-established territory on the Trotternish peninsula, was found dead on 14 November. Ornithologists believe it may have fed on infected greylag geese.

Some 22,100 ducks were culled at a commercial premises in Aughnacloy, Co Tyrone, while culling and an exclusion zone was also being applied to a second site in Broughshane, Co Antrim, described as a “small backyard flock”.

If it just affects birds, why the panic?
It doesn’t. World Health Organization (WHO) figures show that from 2003 to 2021 there were 863 confirmed cases of the H5N1 virus in humans. Of these cases, 456 people died. While transmission is rare, it has happened.

So far, most of the human deaths have been in countries in Asia, in communities in which people live in close proximity to poultry. Although it does not easily infect humans, every time it does it increases the chance that the virus could mutate into a form that could be passed from one infected human to another. The WHO fears this could lead to a flu pandemic.

How do you catch bird flu?
It is very unlikely you will catch the virus unless you have been in close contact with infected birds or someone with confirmed or suspected bird flu. The virus is found in secretions from the eyes and respiratory tract, and droppings of infected birds. Humans can catch the virus by inhaling droplets sneezed by infected birds or the dust from their bedding or droppings.

What are the symptoms in humans?
They vary depending on the strain. Most infections have flu-like symptoms including fever, coughing, sore throat, runny nose, and aches and pains. Symptoms of the H5N1 subtype are more severe and frequently result in death. Other symptoms can include conjunctivitis – red, sore and discharging eyes.

How does it spread?
WHO scientists have said they believe it is likely the virus is carried by migrating birds. More recently the UK government has said it “spreads from bird to bird by direct contact or through contaminated body fluids and faeces”. Officials added: “It can also be spread by contaminated feed and water or by dirty vehicles, clothing and footwear … Avian influenza isn’t an airborne virus.”

It can spread to humans who touch infected birds, droppings or bedding or who kill or prepare infected poultry for cooking, the NHS has said. People cannot catch bird flu by eating fully cooked poultry or eggs, even in areas affected by an outbreak, health officials have said.

What measures is the UK taking?
The government has said the chief veterinary officers for each of the UK’s constituent nations have “agreed to bring in new housing measures to protect poultry and captive birds from avian influenza following a number of confirmed cases across Great Britain in recent weeks”. It added: “The new housing measures, which will come into force on Monday 29 November, mean that it will be a legal requirement for all bird keepers across the UK to keep their birds indoors and to follow strict biosecurity measures in order to limit the spread of and eradicate the disease.”

How do you spot the virus in birds?
Symptoms in infected birds include a swollen head and blue discoloration around the neck and throat. They will also show signs of breathing problems including gaping beaks, coughing, sneezing and rattling wheezing. Poultry farmers will also notice a loss of appetite in the infected birds and a decrease in egg laying.

People are advised not touch or pick up any dead or visibly sick birds they find. In Great Britain, dead wild waterfowl or other wild birds should be reported to Defra. Some will then be collected and tested to help scientists understand how the disease is distributed geographically and in different types of bird.

What drug treatments are available to humans?
There is no vaccine for avian flu. If a person were infected, the NHS has said they would be either told to stay at home or put into isolation in hospital. They would then be treated with an antiviral medicine such as oseltamivir (known as Tamiflu) or zanamivir (known as Relenza).

Scientists have found that such treatments “help reduce the severity of the condition, prevent complications and improve the chances of survival. They are also sometimes given to people who have been in close contact with infected birds, or those who have had contact with infected people, for example family or healthcare staff,” the NHS said.

Case of avian flu recorded in East Staffordshire [Staffordshire Live, 6 Dec 2021]

By Jenny Moody

A warning has now been issued to all bird owners

A case of bird flu has been recorded in East Staffordshire, it has been confirmed.

A warning has been issued by Staffordshire County Council after a case in a 'backyard flock' was reported in East Staffordshire. This refers to poultry such as chickens that are often kept in back gardens by their owners.

It comes as people who keep birds and poultry across Staffordshire are being asked to keep their birds indoors to help limit the spread of avian flu.

The new measures, which came into force last week, means it is now a legal requirement for all bird keepers to keep their birds indoors and to follow strict biosecurity measures, a spokesman for the council has said.

The new rules apply to anyone keeping birds, whether it is a few hens in a back garden, rearing game birds or a large commercial farm with tighter restrictions being placed on those bird keepers in closer proximity to the outbreak in East Staffordshire.

There has also been a case in two wild birds with bird flu at Chasewater Country Park.

Visitors to Staffordshire’s country parks and areas with open water are also being advised to follow any local guidance and not to touch or try to rescue sick or injured birds. Anyone spotting dead birds should report them to the park rangers or to the Defra helpline on 03459 335577.

Victoria Wilson, the council's cabinet member responsible for animal health, said: "Over the past few weeks we have seen an increase in the number of cases of the disease which is why the additional measures on keeping captive birds indoors have been introduced.

"It's really important that everyone who keeps birds follow the official advice if we are to limit the spread and eradicate the disease.

"While the risk to the public from this strain of avian flu is very low, people visiting our country parks should follow any local advice. Please do not touch or try and rescue dead or sick birds as they could be infected. Instead contact Defra on 03459 335577."

The A(H5N1) strain is highly pathogenic to other birds, but the risk to human health is considered very low.

Public concern as video shows another case of bird flu in swan at Belfast Waterworks [Belfast Telegraph, 6 Dec 2021]

By Niamh Campbell

A dead swan at the side of the lake at the Waterworks in Belfast where a episode of bird flu has been killing the swans

A video circulating on social media of a swan in Belfast’s Waterworks park exhibiting signs of bird flu has caused concerns among members of the public.

The clip, posted on Facebook on Sunday, shows a swan repeatedly spinning round in circles, then dipping its head underwater seemingly uncontrollably.

The user that posted the video commented: “Why is this allowed to happen? A vet needs to be appointed ASAP to euthanize these ill birds.”

He claimed there were four or five swans showing signs of infection at the Waterworks at that time, as well as “multiple dead swans stacked against the portacabins”.

Also posting on Facebook on Sunday, the Debbie Doolitte Wildlife group said it had received "multiple reports of sick or deceased swans and geese in the Belfast Waterworks”.

"As feared the avian flu is spreading through the resident birds at quite a rate. There was also reports of sick geese in Newtownabbey and another near Dundonald,” they stated.

On Saturday, the Department for the Environment confirmed that avian influenza was detected in six wild birds found at the Waterworks, the Harbour Estate in Belfast and at Monlough Lake close to Carryduff.

The latest cases follow the culls of two separate flocks in Northern Ireland suspected of having bird flu.

This included 27,000 ducks being culled after a suspected case in a commercial flock in Co Tyrone as well as 30 birds owned by a hobby keeper in Broughshane, Co Antrim.

The public have been advised that there is little risk to human life, but that anyone that finds a dead wild bird should report it to the Department’s helpline on 0300 200 7840.

The H521 strain of avian influenza is often fatal to birds that contract the disease.

Local SDLP councillor Paul McCusker said he had also contacted Belfast City Council about the issue and in a reply, the council said it is "getting signs put up".

PBP councillor Fiona Ferguson called for a “clear message” from the council.

”It is clearly unacceptable that young children, or anyone, is having to witness birds in such distress as they pass through the park,” she stated.

"Unfortunately, the advice from the council seems to be that there isn't much they can do, beyond removing deceased birds, while the department wants to focus on captive birds and turkey farms. But the impact on local residents in North Belfast and our wild bird population cannot be ignored or deprioritised.

"We will continue to press for urgent action on this issue."

Sinn Fein councillor Conor Maskey said on Twitter that the response to date in dealing with avian flu within the Waterworks has been “woeful”.

A Belfast City Council spokesperson said: “We’re aware of the Avian flu outbreak that has impacted the bird population in Waterworks Park. In line with health and safety guidance from the Public Health Agency, our park wardens are removing any deceased birds from the site.

”The main species of bird affected at the Waterworks are swans. We're continuing to work alongside the Department of Agriculture Environment and Rural Affairs and the Public Health Agency (DAERA) in response to this issue. We would appeal to park users to follow public health guidance to avoid contact with wild birds and not pick up any sick or dead birds.”

DAERA has also been contacted for further comment.

New bird flu outbreak, two more suspected cases detected in northern France [WTVB News, 6 Dec 2021]

by Pascal Rossignol, Benoit Van Overstraeten and Tassilo Hummel

PARIS (Reuters) – Local authorities in northern France said on Monday a new bird flu cluster had been detected over the week-end in the region, adding that two additional possible bird flu cases in poultry farms were currently under investigation.

Several outbreaks of severe bird flu in Europe and Asia have been reported recently to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), in a sign the virus is spreading quickly again.

The spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has put the poultry industry on alert after previous outbreaks led to the culling of tens of millions of birds. Outbreaks also often lead to trade restrictions.

S. Korea reports suspected cases of highly pathogenic bird flu at egg farm [The Korea Herald, 4 Dec 2021]

South Korea on Saturday reported suspected cases of highly pathogenic bird flu at a local egg farm.

The suspected cases of the avian influenza were discovered at an egg farm in Cheonan, 92 kilometers south of Seoul, according to the government's avian influenza response headquarters.

Tests for the avian influenza are currently under way, and the results will be announced in up to three days, the headquarters said.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza is very contagious among birds and can cause severe illness and even death, especially in domestic poultry. (Yonhap)

Japan Confirms Another Bird Flu Outbreak [Jiji Press, 3 Dec 2021]

Kumamoto, Dec. 3 (Jiji Press)--The prefectural government of Kumamoto, southwestern Japan, said Friday that it has confirmed an outbreak of avian influenza believed to be highly pathogenic at a chicken farm in the town of Nankan.

It was this season's fifth bird flu outbreak confirmed at a poultry farm in Japan and first in the prefecture.

The prefectural government will cull some 67,000 chickens at the farm.

According to the prefecture, a local livestock health center received a report from the farm Thursday that an increasing number of chickens there had been found dead.

After simple testing showed positive results, the bird flu virus was found likely to be highly pathogenic in genetic testing.

Importation of domestic, wild birds stopped due to bird flu [MoINQUIRER.net, 2 Dec 2021]

By JORDEENE B. LAGARE

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture has temporarily barred the importation of domestic and wild birds and their by-products from Hungary and Japan following bird flu outbreaks in those countries.

The order suspended the processing and evaluation of applications for the required sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances, but allowed shipments that were already processed before Nov. 1 for Hungary and Oct. 27 for Japan.

More confirmed cases of avian flu discovered in Bury [Bury Times, 1 Dec 2021]

By Ted Stirzaker

TWO more cases of avian flu have been reported in Bury, according to experts.

The contagious H5N1 virus, deadly to birds, have been confirmed by the agency, in a Canada goose and a swan.

This follows the confirmation of a case involving a great crested grebe, which was found in Bury last week and the discovery of several outbreaks across the country in recent weeks.

A number of dead geese were found at the Lido in Bury's Clarence Park.

But these have not yet been officially confirmed as avian flu cases.

Lesley Jones, Bury Council’s public health director, said: ““I want to reassure residents that the risk to public health from avian flu is very low.

“However, it is important people do not pick up any sick or dead birds to avoid spreading the virus, which can affect humans in rare cases.

“If you do find any dead swans, geese or ducks or other dead wild birds while out and about, please report them to the Defra helpline on 03459 33 55 77.

“I would also urge bird keepers to be vigilant for any signs of disease and report any suspected cases to their nearest Animal and Plant Health Agency.”

In a joint statement issued this week, the UK’s four chief veterinary officers said: “We have taken swift action to limit the spread of the disease and are now planning to introduce a legal requirement for all poultry and captive bird keepers to keep their birds housed or otherwise separate from wild birds."

An order was then made that from Monday to all bird keepers that they must be kept indoors and away from wild birds.

The four officers added: "We have not taken this decision lightly, taking this action now is the best way to protect your birds from this highly infectious disease.”

Since November 3, Defra have enforced an Avian Influenza Zone (AIPZ), since a strain of the virus was found in Warwickshire.

Bird Flu Confirmed In Agar Malwa District Of Madhya Pradesh After Nearly 50 Crows Found Dead [India Times, 1 Dec 2021]

By Bobins Abraham

An outbreak of H5N8 avian influenza, (bird flu) has been confirmed in Agar Malwa of Madhya Pradesh after nearly 50 crows were found dead there in four days.

“We had sent the samples of the dead crows for a laboratory test. The examination of these samples confirmed the presence of H5N8 virus (a variant of avian influenza or bird flu),” Agar Malwa district collector Avdhesh Sharma said.

He said 48 crows and a cockle were found dead in the Agar Malwa district in the last four days.

Samples taken for testing
“We have taken the samples of poultry. Officials of the departments concerned have been directed to follow the guidelines (of the Union Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying),” the collector said.

Bird Flu: Temporary control zone introduced in NI after outbreak confirmed near border [Farming Life, 1 Dec 2021]

By Joanne Knox

An Outbreak of avian influenza H5N1 has been confirmed in a commercial poultry premises close to the border between Monaghan and Armagh.

As a result, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has introduced a three-kilometre and 10-kilometre disease control zone to mitigate the risk of spreading the disease.

Northern Ireland Chief Veterinary Officer, Robert Huey, stated: “Following this third confirmation in County Monaghan, officials in DAERA will continue to work very closely with their counterparts in DAFM.

“The location of this infected premises lies close to the border between Monaghan and Armagh.

“As a consequence, DAERA must take appropriate disease control measures to mitigate for onward disease spread.

“I have therefore declared a temporary control zone (TCZ-B) in that part of NI which lies within 10km of the infected premises.

“The declaration of the TCZ-B will involve premises within this zone having to adhere to strict biosecurity protocols, recording movements on/off holdings and a requirement to seek licensing for any movement of poultry or poultry related products into or out of the zone.

“You should contact the movement licensing centre for a specific licence application form, at least 48 hours in advance of any planned move.”

Mr Huey continued: “It is vitally important that all bird keepers adhere to strict biosecurity measures of the avian influenza prevention zone (AIPZ) in place throughout Northern Ireland, and the requirements of the housing order which is also in force.

“Bird keepers are now legally required to keep birds indoors or otherwise separate from wild birds. “Excellent biosecurity remains the most effective defence for reducing transmission of avian influenza to poultry or captive birds.

“Please make use of the biosecurity checklist that has been developed by the department to help review your biosecurity and give you the assurance that your birds are protected.”

DAERA reminds you that it is a legal requirement for all bird keepers to register your birds (unless they are kept within your own home).

This enables them to contact you with important disease information, giving you the best opportunity to protect your birds.

Hungary reports H5N1 bird flu in turkey farm [WTVB News, 1 Dec 2021]

by Anita Komuves & Louise Heavens

BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus at a turkey farm while authorities also found the virus in a dead swan in the country’s eastern region, the National Food Chain Safety Office (Nebih) said on Wednesday.

The outbreak in the county of Bekes led to the slaughter of nearly 5,000 turkeys on a farm where the virus was detected on Tuesday.

On Wednesday H5N1 was also detected in neighboring Hajdu-Bihar county in a dead swan.
Two weeks ago more than 38,000 ducks were slaugthered on one farm, as well as around 500 geese on a second farm due to a bird flue outbreak in the southern Bacs-Kiskun region.

DA bans poultry imports from Japan and Hungary | Jasper Y. Arcalas [Business Mirror, 1 Dec 2021]

BY JASPER Y. ARCALAS

The Philippines has slapped a temporary import ban on poultry products from Hungary and Japan due to confirmed outbreaks of bird flu in the two countries.

Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar issued Memorandum Orders (MO) 72 and 73 that ordered the temporary import ban of domestic and wild birds and their products from Japan and Hungary, respectively.

The import ban on Japanese poultry products came just two months after the Philippines’s previous ban on the East Asian country was lifted.

In both MOs, Dar noted that the two countries reported confirmed outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) or bird flu last month to the international and local authorities.

Japan reported several outbreaks of HPAI that started last November 10 to the Philippine Bureau Animal Industry (BAI), while Hungary reported H5N1 outbreaks last November 17 to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

“There is a need to prevent the entry of HPAI virus to protect the health of the local poultry population,” Dar said in the two MOs issued recently.

With the import ban, the government has suspended the processing, evaluation of the application and issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPS-IC) for poultry products from the two countries.

However, all shipments in transit/loaded/accepted unto port before the official communication of the import bans to the Hungarian and Japanese authorities shall be allowed to enter the country provided that they were produced before a given date.

Japanese poultry products produced before October 27 may enter the country while Hungarian poultry products produced before November 1 will be permitted, according to the documents.

The MO also stipulated that all other shipments accepted at the port of origin the day after the date of the official communication of the import bans to Japanese and Hungarian authorities are “advised not to sail.”

“Shipments which have not complied with the conditions set forth in Item 3 to Item 4 shall be dealt with as per DA AO 9 S. 2010 Section VII.D,” the documents read.

“Importation of meat products of poultry is subject to the conditions provided in Article 10.4.18, 10.4.19 and 10.4.24 of OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code [2021],” they added.

Last month, the government reinstated the temporary import ban on poultry products from the Netherlands, which was the second time this year, due to confirmed outbreaks of bird flu.

New Coronavirus News from 11 Dec 2021

Hippos, hyenas, and other animals are contracting COVID-19 [National Geographic, 11 Dec 2021]

BYNATASHA DALY

More species are found to be susceptible to the coronavirus, with most cases detected in zoos.

Ngozi and Kibo, ages 22 and 23, developed a cough, lethargy, and runny noses at home in Colorado in November. Soon it was determined that their run-of-the-mill symptoms were signs of a global first: These Denver Zoo residents became the first hyenas in the world known to be infected with COVID-19.

The milestone, nearly 20 months into the pandemic, is part of a pattern in recent months. On October 6, a binturong (“bearcat”) and a fishing cat tested positive at Chicago Zoo, followed a week later by a coati. Two hippos at a zoo in Belgium fell victim on December 5. All were the first of their species to contract the virus.

They’re now part of a group of 315 animals from 15 species in the United States confirmed to have SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The list also includes cats, dogs, tigers, lions, snow leopards, gorillas, otters, a cougar, a ferret, white-tailed deer. (Infected mink, nearly all on fur farms, are not included in the total).

What do we know about which animals can get the virus? And what does it mean for them—and us?

Are certain animals more susceptible?
These cases have affected mainly carnivorans. (Carnivorans belong to an order of mammals that includes wild and domestic cats, dogs and wolves, bears, and more. Carnivore is a generic term for any animal that primarily eats meat. Sharks, for example, are carnivores but not carnivorans).

The hyenas, the binturong, the coati, and the fishing cat are all carnivorans, as are domestic and big cats, which have been testing positive since early in the pandemic.

This doesn’t necessarily mean carnivorans are more susceptible—there aren’t enough data to judge yet, says Elizabeth Lennon, a veterinarian at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine.

It’s a different story with big cats, however. Ninety have tested positive in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). “I think that if you look at the big picture in all of the zoos, you can confidently say there is some increased susceptibility to clinical disease in large felids,” Lennon says.

Some species are more susceptible to certain variants.

Take mice. They evaded the original SARS-CoV-2 virus, but we know they can be infected with the beta variant.

As variants emerge in humans, the virus could be expanding its host range—mutating to infect more species and potentially circulating “silently” among them, creating a new reservoir, says Diego Diel, associate professor and director of the virology laboratory at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

But the opposite is also true: It’s possible that new variants would be harmless to certain species, Diel says, because “as the virus becomes more effective in transmitting between humans, it may become less effective in moving between animals.”

As of now, there’s no evidence that with the exception of mink, any species, including pets, can transmit the virus to humans, or that variants have emerged after mutating in another species.
Most animals don’t seem to get seriously ill from COVID-19.

The majority of animals in the U.S.—including Ngozi and Kibo, the hyenas—have had only mild symptoms and made full recoveries.

The most serious cases have occurred in snow leopards and mink. At Lincoln Children’s Zoo, in Nebraska, three snow leopards died in November from complications from COVID-19. It’s unclear if they had underlying conditions. And thousands of mink have died at 17 fur farms in Utah and other states. Millions more have been euthanized on farms in Denmark and the Netherlands.

Buddy, the first dog to be confirmed positive for COVID-19 in the U.S., died in July, but he likely had lymphoma, which experts say may have played a role.

Studying COVID-19 in animals matters.

“As soon as you have more than one species that can maintain and transmit a virus, that has significant implications in control strategies and prevention strategies as well,” Diel says. It’s therefore crucial to find out whether any species could become a reservoir for the virus.

“Animals pose different and unknown risks,” Lennon says. “It’s certainly important that surveillance in many different species continues, because the virus is so widespread,” which increases exposure and transmissibility.

Testing skews toward animals that have shown signs of illness.

The number of animal infections in the U.S. probably exceeds the 315 recorded cases, Diel says. If animals don’t show symptoms, it’s unlikely they’ll be tested, and that makes it difficult to learn about potential silent spreaders—animals that may contract the virus and pass it on without ever exhibiting symptoms.

The white-tailed deer is one species scientists are monitoring closely. This year, a study analyzing blood from more than 600 deer in four U.S. states found antibodies to the coronavirus in nearly 40 percent of the samples. Last month, COVID-19 was detected in three deer in Quebec, Canada. None of the animals seemed sick.

There’s no evidence that deer can pass the virus to humans or other species. But the specter of a silent reservoir gives scientists pause. “That’s why everyone’s been so concerned about these deer studies,” Lennon says. If a virus quietly spreads and even mutates in a large animal population, “it’s much harder to control and eradicate.”

The overwhelming majority of zoo animal cases in the U.S. have been reported by accredited facilities that have strict health protocols.

Bronx Zoo, where the first tigers and lions tested positive in April 2020, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, where the first gorilla tested positive in January 2021, and Lincoln Children’s Zoo, home to the three snow leopards who died, are all members of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), a U.S. nonprofit that sets standards for animal care and safety.

The AZA’s more stringent veterinary protocols mean that caregivers are more likely to detect illness in their animals and to conduct testing, says Dan Ashe, president of the AZA. “They’re constantly monitoring the animals,” he says. “If something doesn’t seem right, they are asking the questions.”

Standard practices during the pandemic include wearing personal protective equipment and minimizing close contact with animals, according to veterinarians at several AZA-accredited zoos with positive cases. “Our members have taken a lot of measures to provide protection, and we’re still seeing infections,” Ashe says. “So it’s hard to believe it’s not happening at other facilities where contact is much more—shall we say—liberal.”

We have no idea what might be happening at “roadside” zoos that offer visitors hands-on interactions with animals.

Many roadside zoos, such as those featured in Netflix’s Tiger King, offer hands-on contact with animals, especially lion and tiger cubs—species known to be susceptible to the virus. These zoos must be licensed by the USDA to exhibit animals but are not accredited by the AZA, which doesn’t allow contact between big cats and the public. (Read about Tiger King fans who waited in an hours-long line to have the chance to pet tiger cubs during the height of the pandemic.)

The care standards set by the USDA fall well below those of the AZA, and roadside zoos are notorious for lax veterinary care and safety protocols. It’s unclear whether any big cats at roadside zoos or cub-petting facilities have been tested for the virus or have died from it.

“I think the risk is higher” at roadside zoos, Diel says. “A requirement for transmission is close contact, and in every situation where you … broaden the number of people that have contact with animals, that increases the risk.”

We need more data, and we need to keep studying.

Although COVID-19 is primarily a human disease, Lennon says, the growing number of species known to be susceptible to the virus should be a call to action. “We need to be doing a lot of surveillance in different species and in new variants” such as Omicron, she says. “This virus from the get-go has surprised everyone at every turn … We can’t let our guard down at any point, as we keep learning over and over.”

Japan's low COVID-19 death rate may be due to genetics, top research institute says [The Japan Times, 11 Dec 2021]

The reason that Japan has fared far better than the West when it comes to COVID-19 cases and deaths may come down to simple genetics, according to research by a leading Japanese institute.

Most Japanese have an inherited component of the immune system that can more effectively kill various coronaviruses, including the one that causes COVID-19, scientists with Riken research institute have said, adding that this could be one of the factors behind the low number of cases and deaths in Japan during the pandemic compared with the U.S. and Europe.

Many scientists have speculated there may be an X-factor when it comes to the mysteriously low COVID-19 infection and death rates in Japan and neighboring China, South Korea and Taiwan. Higher rates of mask-wearing, along with genetic and immunological characteristics, have often been cited as possible reasons. Riken's research, if proven, would point to the latter.
Humans have two types of adaptive immune systems that fend off pathogens based on memory from past infections with seasonal coronaviruses, a group of viruses that includes ones that cause the common cold, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Natural antibodies work as a first line of defense against the pathogens. Then, when a virus enters the body, the other defense mechanism — a powerful immune response composed of T cells inside white blood cells that bind to and kill infected cells — kicks in.

The key to preventing serious COVID-19 cases is activated T cells, and that's where human leukocyte antigen (HLA) comes in. This complex set of genes helps T cells identify infected cells in order to destroy them.

A human body contains tens of thousands of HLAs and each individual has multiple HLA types, which are genetically inherited.

Until now, research into HLA types and their relationship with the COVID-19 virus had been conducted mainly on people in Europe and the U.S., and it had remained unclear whether the memory T cells from past cold infections would reawaken T cells and trigger a “cross immunity” to kill the virus that causes COVID-19 and its variants.

A team of scientists at Japan's government-backed Riken research institute studied the HLA-A24 molecule, which is found in around 60% of Japanese but only about 10% to 20% of people in Europe and the U.S. They then investigated the spike protein of the virus that causes COVID-19 and identified an antigen component, or epitope peptide, called QYI that binds to HLA-A24, activates the T cells and multiplies them. Basically, it signals to the body's immune system that there is an intruder that must be fought off.

The institute is calling their discovery a world first.

The team also found that a similar epitope exists in seasonal coronaviruses and binds to HLA-A24, which triggers and multiplies T cells to fight against them. Researchers say this proves the existence of cross immunity against the common coronaviruses and the virus that causes COVID-19 on a molecular level.

The discovery of the epitope that causes a strong immune response, which was published online in the scientific journal Communications Biology earlier this month, could lead to the development of a new COVID-19 vaccine and drugs that would be especially beneficial for people who do not see a rise in antibody levels despite getting vaccinated due to conditions such as blood disorders or cancer, says Shin-ichiro Fujii, team leader at Riken Center for Integrative Medical Sciences Laboratory for Immunotherapy.

“(Despite the vaccination), those people see a sharp decline in antibody levels and a very high share of them have died (after getting infected with COVID-19),” he said. “The analysis of people with cancer using the epitope that’s discovered showed that 60% to 70% of them can activate killer T cells. We believe that this method could be used as the next cure for those for whom the vaccine does not work.”

As of Saturday, Japan had reported under 18,500 COVID-19 deaths and about 1.73 million cases of the virus since the start of the pandemic, according to Our World in Data. That compares with about 797,000 deaths and nearly 50 million cases in the U.S. and approximately 147,000 deaths and 10.8 million cases in Britain.

Genetic factor may soften COVID blow for Japanese: study [Nikkei Asia, 11 Dec 2021]

BY HIROKO FUJII

Research suggests T cells that remember cold viruses react to SARS-CoV-2

TOKYO -- A genetic feature linked to white blood cells found in more than half of Japanese people may help the body fight back against COVID-19, activating immune cells that recognize seasonal cold viruses, according to a study by Japan's Riken research institute.

The research, published online in the British journal Communications Biology, is part of an effort to dig deeper into what appear to be relatively low rates of death and serious illness from COVID-19 in Japan.

The study centers on "killer" T cells, part of the immune response when a virus invades the body. These cells seek out and destroy virus-infected cells, identifying them via peptides, or fragments of proteins from specific viruses.

The Riken team looked at a type of human leukocyte antigen called HLA-A24. HLAs, proteins located on the surface of white blood cells, play a key role in the body's defense mechanism that activates T cells.

HLA-A24 is found in about 60% of ethnic Japanese people. When a peptide called QYI derived from the SARS-CoV-2 virus's spike protein was introduced to blood samples from donors with HLA-A24, killer T cells in the samples responded by multiplying.

The team found that the cells reacting to that peptide also responded similarly to similar peptides from other coronavirus families, including seasonal coronaviruses. The study concluded that in people with HLA-A24, killer T cells that remember past infections with seasonal coronaviruses also mount an immune response against the virus that causes COVID-19.

While HLA-A24 is common among some Asian groups, it is scarcer in the West, generally appearing in around 10% to 20% of European and American populations.

"It could be considered an 'X-factor,'" said Shin-ichiro Fujii, team leader at Riken's immunotherapy laboratory, who was involved in the study.

But this test examined only particular cells, and further research looking at how the immune systems of people with HLA-A24 respond when infected with SARS-CoV-2 is still needed.

The winter Omicron wave is coming — quickly [Axios, 11 Dec 2021]

By Caitlin Owens

Data flooding in from South Africa and Europe is clear: The Omicron variant is spreading extremely quickly, including among vaccinated people.

Why it matters: If this trend holds up, that means a lot of people — around the world and in the U.S. — are about to get sick, even if only mildly so.

Driving the news: An early estimate published yesterday by the UK found that two doses of the Pfizer vaccine are only about 30% effective against symptomatic infection with Omicron, and the AstraZeneca vaccine isn't effective at all.

• A booster shot of the Pfizer vaccine, however, increases effectiveness to 70-75%.
• Experts expect the vaccines to retain higher levels of effectiveness against severe disease, although this hasn't yet been measured.
• Compared to the Delta variant, the risk of reinfection with Omicron is three to eight times higher. This level of immune escape is part of why the variant's transmission has also spiked.

Between the lines: Researchers are estimating that it's taking only between two and three days for the number of Omicron cases to double — meaning it's spreading incredibly fast.
• The UK report estimates that "if Omicron continues to grow at the present rate, Omicron case numbers are projected to reach parity with Delta cases in mid-December."
• The U.S. isn't likely to be too far behind the UK.
Yes, but: In the UK, there are no hospitalizations or deaths associated with Omicron so far.
• Among 43 U.S. cases, only one resulted in hospitalization, the CDC said yesterday.
• That could be because people getting breakthrough infections have milder symptoms, or because the virus overall causes less severe disease, but it's too soon to draw any firm conclusions.

What they're saying: "Omicron would have to be very much milder than Delta, in order to avoid an increase in hospitalisations and deaths," tweeted Meaghan Kall, one of the authors of the UK report.
• "Remember, a small percentage of a big number is still a bigger number than we would like to see."
What we're watching: Only about 26% of vaccinated Americans have received a booster shot, and only 61% of the overall U.S. population is vaccinated, per the CDC.
• If Omicron keeps spreading like it has been, that means U.S. case numbers are also about to skyrocket, save massive behavioral changes.
• The best thing you can do to prepare is get vaccinated or get a booster shot.

New Coronavirus News from 10 Dec 2021

Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19 [FDA.gov, 10 Dec 2021]

COVID-19. We’ve been living with it for what sometimes seems like forever. Given the number of deaths that have occurred from the disease, it’s perhaps not surprising that some consumers are turning to drugs not approved or authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

One of the FDA’s jobs is to carefully evaluate the scientific data on a drug to be sure that it is both safe and effective for a particular use. In some instances, it can be highly dangerous to use a medicine for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 that has not been approved by or has not received emergency use authorization from the FDA.

There seems to be a growing interest in a drug called ivermectin for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 in humans. Certain animal formulations of ivermectin such as pour-on, injectable, paste, and "drench," are approved in the U.S. to treat or prevent parasites in animals. For humans, ivermectin tablets are approved at very specific doses to treat some parasitic worms, and there are topical (on the skin) formulations for head lice and skin conditions like rosacea.

However, the FDA has received multiple reports of patients who have required medical attention, including hospitalization, after self-medicating with ivermectin intended for livestock.

Here’s What You Need to Know about Ivermectin

• The FDA has not authorized or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19 in humans or animals. Ivermectin is approved for human use to treat infections caused by some parasitic worms and head lice and skin conditions like rosacea.
• Currently available data do not show ivermectin is effective against COVID-19. Clinical trials assessing ivermectin tablets for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 in people are ongoing.
• Taking large doses of ivermectin is dangerous.
• If your health care provider writes you an ivermectin prescription, fill it through a legitimate source such as a pharmacy, and take it exactly as prescribed.
• Never use medications intended for animals on yourself or other people. Animal ivermectin products are very different from those approved for humans. Use of animal ivermectin for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 in humans is dangerous.

What is Ivermectin and How is it Used?
Ivermectin tablets are approved by the FDA to treat people with intestinal strongyloidiasis and onchocerciasis, two conditions caused by parasitic worms. In addition, some topical forms of ivermectin are approved to treat external parasites like head lice and for skin conditions such as rosacea.

Some forms of animal ivermectin are approved to prevent heartworm disease and treat certain internal and external parasites. It’s important to note that these products are different from the ones for people, and safe only when used in animals as prescribed.

When Can Taking Ivermectin Be Unsafe?
The FDA has not authorized or approved ivermectin for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19 in people or animals. Ivermectin has not been shown to be safe or effective for these indications.

There’s a lot of misinformation around, and you may have heard that it’s okay to take large doses of ivermectin. It is not okay.

Even the levels of ivermectin for approved human uses can interact with other medications, like blood-thinners. You can also overdose on ivermectin, which can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hypotension (low blood pressure), allergic reactions (itching and hives), dizziness, ataxia (problems with balance), seizures, coma and even death.

Ivermectin Products for Animals Are Different from Ivermectin Products for People
For one thing, animal drugs are often highly concentrated because they are used for large animals like horses and cows, which weigh a lot more than we do— up to a ton or more. Such high doses can be highly toxic in humans. Moreover, the FDA reviews drugs not just for safety and effectiveness of the active ingredients, but also for the inactive ingredients. Many inactive ingredients found in products for animals aren’t evaluated for use in people. Or they are included in much greater quantity than those used in people. In some cases, we don’t know how those inactive ingredients will affect how ivermectin is absorbed in the human body.
Options for Preventing and Treating COVID-19

The most effective ways to limit the spread of COVID-19 include getting a COVID-19 vaccine when it is available to you and following current CDC guidance.

Talk to your health care provider about available COVID-19 vaccines and treatment options. Your provider can help determine the best option for you, based on your health history.

Scientists Are Puzzling Over Omicron's Origins [Bloomberg, 10 Dec 2021]

By Janice Kew

Here’s the latest news from the pandemic:
• Covid crisis threatens holiday season as hospitals overflow
• Hong Kong to tighten quarantine for travelers from U.S.
• Omicron may be spreading faster in U.K. than in South Africa

Seeking answers on omicron

Omicron’s sheer number of mutations has raised many questions—including whether the variant will evade vaccines, spread more easily and lead to severe illness. The strain’s changes are also causing scientists to puzzle over its origins.

When the scientist who first detected the new variant in late November took samples from foreign diplomats who had traveled together to Botswana and sequenced them, the international database provided a surprise: The samples most closely resembled a strain first detected in early April 2020 and known as the U.A.E lineage.

After Sikhulile Moyo, director for the Botswana Harvard HIV Reference Laboratory and a research fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, looked more closely, he saw the earlier variant had fewer mutations and ruled out what he was seeing as being the same.

What it did show was that omicron has an unusually large number of mutations on the gene that helps the coronavirus spread. Since omicron’s discovery, others have checked samples sitting in freezers in their laboratories and found that the lineage was already circulating as early as October.

Viruses don’t accumulate mutations in a single step. So scientists are still trying to understand how so many mutations arose for omicron in an apparently short space of time.

One of the theories is that the strain developed in an immuno-compromised person who harbored the virus for much longer than normal, allowing it to go through many adaptations.
In southern Africa, the high rate of HIV infections means that millions of people have a weakened immune system. While most are on antiretroviral drugs that prevent the HIV virus from multiplying, many aren’t. That means that their ability to fight off and rid the body of pathogens is severely diminished. Advanced cancer sufferers have similar immune system problems.

Another hypothesis being looked into is whether the variant could have been transferred from people into an animal host, where it adapted to that host relatively quickly and then moved back into humans.

It could also be that there simply hasn’t been enough global testing of various Covid samples and that close relatives of omicron had already developed undetected.

Trying to figure out omicron’s origins is important as it gives insight into how it’s behaving and what SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, might do next.

Still, figuring out the origins of a virus is often tricky, and the contentious issue of how the virus that sparked the pandemic first appeared in people hasn’t yet been answered.—Janice Kew

Track the virus
How Does Omicron Challenge the Treatments for Covid?

A treatment Covid-19 patients could take by pill to avert life-threatening illness has been something of a holy grail for doctors and drugmakers. The earliest therapeutics shown to help have typically been administered to patients via a transfusion or once they have become sick enough to require hospitalization. Two years after the first Covid cases were reported in China, two pill-based treatments have emerged that even skeptical scientists are hailing as potential game-changers.

New CDC data shows first-known omicron Covid patient in U.S. had symptoms starting Nov. 15 [CNBC, 10 Dec 2021]

By Spencer Kimball

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday said the first-known case of omicron Covid in the U.S. was found in a person who had traveled internationally and started presenting symptoms on Nov. 15.

The new infection timeline means omicron arrived in the U.S. earlier than first thought.

California had reported what was believed to be the first confirmed case on Dec. 1. An international traveler returned to San Francisco from South Africa on Nov. 22, developed symptoms three days later and tested positive on Nov. 29.

The CDC said 22 states have confirmed at least one omicron case, and some of those cases indicate community spread is underway. Among 43 omicron Covid patients, 33% reported international travel during the 14 days before symptom onset or testing positive, according to the CDC.

Case investigations have identified exposures associated with international and domestic travel, large public events and household transmission.

One vaccinated person was hospitalized for two days, but there haven't been any deaths reported to date among the patients who have been followed by health officials, according to the CDC.

Among the cases, 58% of the patients were between 18 and 39 years of age, and 79% were fully vaccinated at least 14 days before symptom onset or testing positive. Fourteen people had received booster doses and six had recovered from previous Covid infections, according to the CDC. Five received their booster dose less than 14 days before symptom onset.

The most common reported symptoms were cough, fatigue and congestion, or a runny nose.
"Many of the first reported cases of omicron variant infection appear to be mild, although as with all variants, a lag exists between infection and more severe outcomes, and symptoms would be expected to be milder in vaccinated persons and those with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection than in an unvaccinated person," the CDC said in its weekly Morbidity and Mortality report on Friday.

The World Health Organization has said the omicron variant appears to be more contagious than the predominant delta variant, though more data is needed for conclusive answers. White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has said early reports of mild symptoms are encouraging, though more data is needed to determine the possible severity of health outcomes.

The U.K. Health Security Agency warned on Wednesday that the spread of the omicron variant is widening, eclipsing the previous delta one. Health Secretary Sajid Javid told British lawmakers that omicron infections in the U.K. could top 1 million by year-end.

New Coronavirus News from 9 Dec 2021

Omicron Wave Heads for U.K., but It’s Not Clear How Bad It’ll Be [The New York Times, 9 Dec 2021]

By Megan Specia

Britain could be a bellwether of what other countries will see from the new coronavirus variant. Officials say Omicron could account for most cases within weeks.

LONDON — With cases of the Omicron variant doubling every three days and the government doing an about-face on restrictions it had long resisted, Britain is bracing for a new coronavirus surge, unsure if it will be a relatively minor event or a return to the dark days of earlier pandemic waves.

So far, the number of Omicron cases — 817 confirmed by Thursday, though officials say the real figure is likely much higher — is small compared with the daily average of 48,000 new coronavirus cases overall. But the government’s Health Security Agency warned that if the recent growth rate continues, “we expect to see at least 50 percent of Covid-19 cases to be caused by the Omicron variant in the next two to four weeks.”

Early evidence in Britain backs up tentative findings elsewhere, notably in South Africa, where the heavily mutated new variant is already widespread: It appears to be the most contagious form of the virus yet, a previous case of Covid-19 provides little immunity to it, and vaccines seem less effective against it. But it also seems to cause less severe illness than earlier variants.

Britain’s experience with Omicron may be a harbinger of what others can expect. Until now, it has been looser about social restrictions than many other nations in Western Europe, and Britain ordinarily has extensive travel to and from South Africa, so it could be the first wealthy country to be hit hard by Omicron. It also has one of the world’s most robust systems for sequencing viral genomes, so it can identify and track new variants earlier and more thoroughly than other countries.

“I think we are looking at a horrible winter,” said Peter English, a retired consultant in communicable disease control, noting the exponential spread of Omicron.

Much remains to be learned about the variant, but experts say that what is known so far is worrying. Jeffrey Barrett, the director of the Covid-19 genomics initiative at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Britain, said the new data made one thing clear: “It will spread very fast, even in countries that have a very high vaccination rate like the U.K.”

The current estimate that Omicron is doubling roughly every three days, in a country where 70 percent of people are fully vaccinated and 32 percent have had a booster dose, is “really striking,” he added.

“We haven’t seen that kind of rate of growth since I think the March 2020 time when the original virus was spreading in a totally naïve population, when none of us really knew anything about it,” he said.

Even if Omicron infection is less severe on the whole, experts warn that if it leads to an enormous surge in cases, even a small percentage of them resulting in seriously ill patients could once again overwhelm hospitals and cause a spike in deaths.

Dr. Barrett said he was more worried than he was about the previous variants. The possibility that Omicron cases are less severe and that vaccines could still offer some protection mean that the picture could be less pessimistic, he said, but he added, “I don’t think any country should be gambling on that chance right now.”

Michael Ryan, the head of the World Health Organization’s health emergencies program, warned during a news conference that as the world has seen before with other variants, “if they are allowed to spread unchecked even though they are not individually more virulent or more lethal, they just generate more cases, they put pressure on the health system and more people die. That’s what we can avoid.”

The W.H.O. chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, acknowledged that there was some evidence that Omicron caused milder illness then Delta, though it was too early to be definitive.

On Wednesday, Britain adopted a new strategy in response to Omicron, urging people to work from home where possible, introducing new mask mandates and requiring people to show vaccine passports for entry to some venues. It was a striking reversal for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who had opposed stricter controls that have been adopted around Europe, which was suffering through its biggest coronavirus wave so far before Omicron appeared.

Britain’s Health Security Agency released new data on Wednesday that it said “suggests that Omicron is displaying a significant growth advantage over Delta,” which had previously been the fastest-spreading variant and has become the dominant one worldwide.

Analysis of the data collected in Britain showed increased household transmission risk, a key indicator of how fast the variant can spread. The health agency cautioned that the data was still sparse and the conclusions tentative, with deeper studies underway. But Britain’s genomic sequencing system offers some of the strongest evidence yet on the variant.

All positive coronavirus tests from people arriving in Britain are sent for genomic sequencing, and as part of the country’s routine surveillance, around 15 to 20 percent of all positive P.C.R. tests of people already in the country are also sent for sequencing.
The Coronavirus Pandemic: Key Things to Know

The Omicron variant. The latest Covid-19 variant, which has been detected in dozens of countries, seems to dull the power of the Pfizer vaccine, but the company said its boosters offer significant protection. Omicron appears to spread rapidly, though it may be less severe than other forms of the virus.

Boosters. The F.D.A. authorized Pfizer to provide boosters to 16- and 17-year olds on an emergency basis, six months after receiving their second dose of the Covid vaccine. The C.D.C. promptly signed off on the move. Pfizer recently said that a booster shot of its vaccine offers significant protection against Omicron.

New restrictions. The U.S. is requiring international travelers to provide proof of a negative test taken no more than a day before their flights. In Germany, the government introduced tough restrictions on unvaccinated people, while Britain announced new measures in response to the rise in Omicron cases.

The worldwide vaccination campaign. One year into the global vaccine rollout, the gap in vaccination rates between high- and low-income countries is wider than ever. A Times analysis shows how infrastructure issues and the public’s level of willingness to get vaccinated may pose larger obstacles than supply.

“It’s not going to take long before it becomes obvious in other places, but it’s clearer earlier here,” Dr. Barrett said. “I think other countries should basically assume the same thing is happening.”

The genomic surveillance could also give Britain a head start in determining how severe Omicron cases are, though there will be a lag because it takes days or weeks for a person who gets infected to become seriously ill.

“It is increasingly evident that Omicron is highly infectious and there is emerging laboratory and early clinical evidence to suggest that both vaccine-acquired and naturally acquired immunity against infection is reduced for this variant,” Susan Hopkins, the chief medical adviser to the Health Security Agency, said in a statement.

Experts fear what that could mean for Britain’s already struggling National Health Service.
“A lot of staff have left or are burnt out,” Dr. English said, after months of dealing with the strains of the pandemic. “Now we’ve going to have another big hit — very likely — from Omicron. I am really, really sympathetic toward my poor colleagues working in clinical practice at the moment.”

Chaand Nagpaul, the chair of the British Medical Association, a trade union for doctors and medical students, said the government decision was the right one and had come at a crucial moment.

He said in a statement that the country had been having “increasingly high incidences of Covid-19 for some time,” adding that “health care workers are rightly worried about the impact the Omicron variant could have” on the health system’s ability to function if caseloads rise fast.
Some hospitals have already canceled elective care again, a strategy seen at the start of the pandemic to free up resources for treating coronavirus patients. Patients are already experiencing hourslong waits for ambulances as a result of the existing pressures on the system, Dr. Nagpaul added.

“While the number of Covid hospitalizations today is much lower than last winter, we must not risk complacency by ignoring the rapid doubling of Omicron cases every two to three days,” he said.

How Deadly Is the Omicron Variant? - Has Anyone Died From the New Covid Variant? [Prevention.com, 9 Dec 2021]

By Korin Miller

No deaths have been reported so far, but experts stress that it's early.

New COVID-19 variants have surfaced regularly since the pandemic began. Some have quickly faded away without making much of an impact, while others like Delta have completely taken over.

Now, public health officials around the world are warning about the rise and potential of Omicron, a new variant that was first detected in South Africa last month. The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a brief this week that the “overall global risk” of Omicron is “very high.” The brief continued, “Omicron is a highly divergent variant with a high number of mutations … some of which are concerning and may be associated with immune escape potential and higher transmissibility.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) followed by issuing a strong recommendation that Americans over the age of 18 get a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine after their primary vaccination. (Previously, the CDC said that people “may” get a booster.) “Early data from South Africa suggest increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant, and scientists in the United States and around the world are urgently examining vaccine effectiveness related to this variant,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, M.D., said in a statement about the booster recommendation.

What, exactly, Omicron will do and whether it has the potential to outcompete Delta is still being investigated. But it’s only natural to have questions, like how deadly the Omicron variant is and what this could mean for the future of the pandemic. Here’s everything you need to know.

What is the Omicron variant?
The Omicron variant, also called B.1.1.529, is a strain of COVID-19 that was first detected in South Africa on November 9. The WHO reported it on November 24 and classified Omicron as a variant of concern, its most serious classification.

It’s important to note that, while the variant was first detected in South Africa, that doesn’t mean it actually originated there.

Since it was first detected, cases of Omicron have been spotted in several parts of the world, including the U.S. “This variant has been detected at faster rates than previous surges in infection, suggesting that this variant may have a growth advantage,” the WHO said.

Why are experts so concerned about the Omicron variant?
There are a few potential issues that public health experts around the world are concerned about.

Where has the Omicron variant been detected?
Cases of Omicron continue to spread in South Africa and it’s also been detected in Botswana, according to the CDC. The variant has shown up in Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Canada, and Australia, too, per the Associated Press.

The U.S. and other countries have tightened travel restrictions in response to the variant, but cases of Omicron continue to pop up in the U.S. The variant has been detected in 17 states so far, according to CDC surveillance data.

South Africa is facing a huge surge in COVID-19 infections as well. “As the country heads into a fourth wave of COVID-19 infections, we are experiencing a rate of infections that we have not seen since the pandemic started,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in an open letter to the country. “Nearly a quarter of all COVID-19 tests now come back positive. Compare this to two weeks ago, when the proportion of positive tests was sitting at around 2%.”

How deadly is the Omicron variant?
That’s a big question mark. The WHO says that, “preliminary data suggests that there are increasing rates of hospitalization in South Africa, but this may be due to increasing overall numbers of people becoming infected, rather than a result of specific infection with Omicron.”

Anthony Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical advisor to the president went on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday and said data does not indicate that Omicron is any more deadly than past strains of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. “Thus far, it does not look like there’s a great degree of severity to it,” Dr. Fauci said. “But we have really got to be careful before we make any determinations that it is less severe or it really doesn’t cause any severe illness, comparable to Delta.”

Infectious disease expert Amesh A. Adalja, M.D., a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, agrees. “There is still not enough information to make a definitive evaluation of the variant, but each day we learn more,” he says. “It’s unclear how ‘deadly’ this variant is, because there have not been any reported deaths thus far, but deaths lag.”

Dr. Russo says that more data—and time—is needed. “Overall, the cases have been mild and that’s encouraging,” he says. However, he adds, as Omicron infects more people, doctors will get a better sense of how deadly the variant is in the overall population. “We’re still in waiting mode,” Dr. Russo says.

How to protect yourself against Omicron
Currently, the Delta variant is responsible for 99.9% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., per CDC data. “Delta is still the big threat,” Dr. Russo says. However, Omicron is starting to surface in areas where Delta is prevalent.

“People should definitely not stress out about Omicron,” Dr. Russo says. “It’s highly likely that, if you’re fully vaccinated—with three shots in your arm—the worst-case scenario is that you’ll get an asymptomatic or mild infection if you happen to be infected.”

Dr. Adalja says that increased testing and doing your own personal risk calculation before you go into crowds and public spaces can help, too.

But Dr. Russo urges people to “use this time judiciously” and to “go ahead and get maximum protection”—especially before the holidays. “If Omicron turns out to be problematic, you’ll be more protected,” he says. “But now is the time to take action.”

CDC chief says Omicron is ‘mild’ as early data comes in on US spread of variant [The Guardian, 9 Dec 2021]

Agency is working on detailed analysis of what the new mutant form of the coronavirus might hold for the US

More than 40 people in the US have been found to be infected with the Omicron variant so far, and more than three-quarters of them had been vaccinated, the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said. But she added nearly all of them were only mildly ill.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said the data is very limited and the agency is working on a more detailed analysis of what the new mutant form of the coronavirus might hold for the US.

“What we generally know is the more mutations a variant has, the higher level you need your immunity to be … we want to make sure we bolster everybody’s immunity. And that’s really what motivated the decision to expand our guidance,” Walensky said, referencing the recent approval of booster shots for all adults.

She said “the disease is mild” in almost all of the cases seen so far, with reported symptoms mainly cough, congestion and fatigue. One person was hospitalized, but no deaths have been reported, CDC officials said.

Some cases can become increasingly severe as days and weeks pass, and Walensky noted that the data is a very early, first glimpse of US Omicron infections. The earliest onset of symptoms of any of the first 40 or so cases was 15 November, according to the CDC.

The Omicron variant was first identified in South Africa last month and has since been reported in 57 countries, according to the World Health Organization.

The first US case was reported on 1 December. As of Wednesday afternoon, the CDC had recorded 43 cases in 19 states. Most were young adults. About a third of those patients had traveled internationally.

More than three-quarters of those patients had been vaccinated, and a third had boosters, Walensky said. Boosters take about two weeks to reach full effect, and some of the patients had received their most recent shot within that period, CDC officials said.

Fewer than 1% of the US Covid-19 cases genetically sequenced last week were the Omicron variant; the Delta variant accounted for more than 99%.

Scientists are trying to better understand how easily it spreads. British officials said Wednesday that they think the Omicron variant could become the dominant version of the coronavirus in the UK in as soon as a month.

The CDC has yet to make any projections on how the variant could affect the course of the pandemic in the US. Walensky said officials are gathering data but many factors could influence how the pandemic evolves.

“When I look to what the future holds, so much of that is definitely about the science, but it’s also about coming together as a community to do things that prevent disease in yourself and one another. And I think a lot of what our future holds depends on how we come together to do that,” she said.

The CDC is also trying to establish whether the Omicron variant causes milder – or more severe – illness than other coronavirus types. The finding that nearly all of the cases so far are mild may be a reflection that this first look at US Omicron cases captured mainly vaccinated people, who are expected to have milder illnesses, CDC officials said.

Another key question is whether it is better at evading vaccines or the immunity people build from a bout with Covid-19.

This week, scientists in South Africa reported a small laboratory study that found antibodies created by vaccines were not as effective at preventing Omicron infections as they were at stopping other versions of the coronavirus.

On Wednesday, vaccine manufacturer Pfizer said that while two doses may not be protective enough to prevent infection, lab tests showed a booster increased levels of virus-fighting antibodies by 25-fold.

What Is The Meaning Of Omicron? [Forbes, 9 Dec 2021]

By William A. Haseltine

The data on Omicron is still too sparse to allow us to make clear predictions on the exact nature of this new variant, but we know enough about this strain to understand its essential meaning. Omicron is sending a message, loud and clear: this virus is capable of far more changes and far more variation than most ever thought possible and it will keep coming back to haunt us again and again.

From an evolutionary biology point of view, Omicron was to be expected. Coronaviruses in general have adapted to develop a wide variety of strategies to continue their replication and to infect and reinfect multiple species over millions of years. Coronaviruses evolved in bats and other long-lived, highly immunocompetent creatures. To survive, the virus had to learn a wealth of tricks — dampening immunity, evading early immune defenses, and shapeshifting to allow for multiple reinfections. Bats, in behavior at least, are a species quite similar to humans, living in densely packed communities but able to travel from one community to another, interacting with other animals and species along the way. Coronaviruses have learned how to thrive not only in a host species but how to infect neighboring species as well.

At least seven coronaviruses have made the jump from animals to humans, but SARS-CoV-2 has shown that it can make the jump back into animals to reemerge and invade us again — a process called reverse zoonosis. But that’s not all this virus can do. If we look closely at the genomes of the coronaviruses that have emerged from bats and other species, we see that these viruses can readily recombine amongst each other, in addition to the point mutations we have seen in Omicron and in other known SARS-CoV-2 variants. Recombination, we know from influenza, can lead very quickly to much more virulent variants by picking up components that our immune systems have not previously seen.

While the world is now appropriately concerned about Omicron, many continue to overlook what more this virus may have in store for us. The variations we have seen in SARS-CoV-2 variants across the viral genome show us that this virus has many more tools still at its disposal to increase infectivity. Changes to the regulatory proteins can increase the virus’ ability to suppress our immune system. Mutations in structural and non-structural proteins can help the virus increase its ability to replicate. Changes in the spike, as we’ve already seen, can increase its affinity and allow it to bind more easily to our cells.

I believe we can expect a continual barrage of variants for the indefinite future unless we are able to bring this virus under control through a systematic application of public health measures and medical interventions, including vaccines, drugs, and diagnostic tests. I’ve written numerous times about a multimodal approach to Covid control but I fear, still today, not enough countries are taking heed.

White House Mandates Pfizer Vaccines for Millions of Citizens ...Before the FDA Clinical or Safety Reviews Have Been Made Public

Our first and best line of defense has and will always be public health, which requires leadership and a culture of understanding and acceptance of tough measures when the situation dictates. Widespread testing, at home and in all public spaces like schools, businesses, and major public events is a basic necessity, which must be tied to rigorous contact tracing and notification of those exposed. When new outbreaks occur, stringent public health measures need to be enforced to control the virus spread: mask-wearing, improved ventilation, social distancing, mandatory quarantine and isolation, and — as challenging as they may be — even lockdowns if necessary. China has proven that this approach can work against the original virus and every known variant.

Beyond public health, we have our vaccines — the full three-dose regimen of top-of-the-line mRNA vaccines. Even if they cannot neutralize a new variant like Omicron completely, they will still offer some degree of added protection and, in those who mount a particularly robust antibody response, that protection may still be quite high initially.

But beyond vaccines, whose potency will no doubt fade against some variants and may fade quite considerably for all variants over time, we need other protections. Right now, our best bet lies with the wider use of monoclonal antibodies for early treatment of COVID-19 and for long-term prevention and protection from the disease. The latest generation of these therapies can be administered by injection after exposure to Covid-19 or shortly after symptoms first appear.

One single dose of monoclonal antibodies could not only prevent someone infected from a severe case of Covid, but it could also prevent that person from becoming infected again, for up to eight months potentially. Consider what this could mean for long-term care centers, naval ships, or people living in university dorms — if one person in your residence fell ill, all others could take a shot to prevent themselves from getting Covid and from spreading it to others. Eventually, oral antivirals may be used in place of an injection, but for now, we know too much about the dangers of molnupiravir, the antiviral drug currently being considered for approval, to allow for its widespread use.

It may not seem like it today, but we do have the tools at hand to control the trajectory of this pandemic. The challenge, from the very beginning, has been in not using them as effectively and rigorously as needed.

To beat Omicron, the race is on to tweak existing vaccines [National Geographic, 9 Dec 2021]

BYMERYL DAVIDS LANDAU

Experts say that updating available vaccines for the worrisome new variant is not that hard and will still yield safe shots.

Almost exactly a year ago, on December 11, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the country’s first COVID-19 vaccine. That Pfizer-BioNTech shot and the ones from other companies that followed have strengthened our collective armor against all the coronavirus variants that have evolved since.

But now scientists fear that the mutations in Omicron alter the virus so significantly that the recipes for the vaccines may need to be adjusted.

As soon as Omicron was characterized in late November, companies rushed to declare that they are on the case. In addition to testing how well their current shots hold up against the new variant; Moderna vowed to “rapidly advance an Omicron-specific booster candidate;” Pfizer said it would have one available by March; and Johnson & Johnson announced it “is pursuing an Omicron-specific variant vaccine.”

Novavax, which has filed for authorization but whose vaccine is not yet available in the U.S., said in a statement that its Omicron-targeted offering will be “ready to begin testing and manufacturing within the next few weeks.”

In some ways, the race to reformulate the shots is striking. “We don’t have many vaccines that we change regularly: measles hasn’t changed, rubella hasn’t changed, hepatitis hasn’t changed,” says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Compared to those more stable pathogens, though, this coronavirus evolves quickly. Experts closely watching Omicron’s spread say drug companies’ efforts to tailor a vaccine to this variant are warranted, because it seems to evade immunity better than prior ones.

“My optimism about Omicron has waned over the past week,” as more—albeit preliminary—data comes in from South Africa, says Vaughn Cooper, professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “The rate of infection [among] previously sick or vaccinated individuals contracting Omicron is really high.”
Rewriting genetic code

Omicron’s ability to infect people who should have immunity likely results from the whopping number of mutations—more than 30—in its spike protein, the part of the virus that helps it enter human cells.

Most concerning are several mutations in what is known as the receptor binding domain, the region of the spike responsible for attaching to our cells, Cooper says. One part of our immune system, its B cells, generate three main types of antibodies that each target a unique section of the spike protein’s surface. Prior variants have had mutations in one or two of these antibody targeting regions, but Omicron has mutations in all three, he notes.

Other variants of concern, especially Beta, have shared some of Omicron’s potentially antibody-evading mutations, but no others have as many, or in the same combinations. “It’s possible that some of the mutations might work in concert with other mutations. Or maybe they cancel each other out. We don’t yet know,” says Katelyn Jetelina, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and the author of the popular Your Local Epidemiologist blog.

The key question is whether the mutations or some combination of them confuse an immune system trained to spot the spike protein, whether from prior vaccinations or from contracting COVID-19.

“Significant alterations in the shape or structure of spike might change how effectively our immune cells neutralize the virus,” says Jill Weatherhead, assistant professor of tropical medicine and infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine. She emphasizes, however, that nobody yet knows if that’s the case.

Should changes be needed in the vaccines, the new mRNA vaccines will be easier to modify than most non-COVID vaccines. The process should take only a few months, says Onyema Ogbuagu, a Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist and a principal investigator of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine trials.

The active ingredient in an mRNA shot is genetic code that provides the instructions for human cells to produce the virus’s spike protein. The mRNA is fashioned in a lab from four chemical building blocks called nucleotides. To target new mutations in the spike, you simply remove a few of the old blocks and replace them with new ones, Ogbuagu explains.

Altering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, where the genetic code is delivered by an adenovirus vector, may be a bit more challenging. But it too fundamentally involves rewriting a bit of code, Weatherhead says.
In a vaccine with a lot of genetic instructions, these alterations would be small, which is why new side effects from refashioned shots are unlikely, Ogbuagu adds. “It’s not creating a new vaccine. It’s more like taking a dress and hemming it to give it a new length,” he says.
Lessons from flu shots

Scientists point to seasonal flu as the model for how to potentially modify COVID-19 vaccines. Each February the World Health Organization uses data from circulating influenza in the Southern Hemisphere, combined with laboratory studies, to make an educated guess about which flu strains will dominate the following season.

Licensed vaccine manufacturers need only prove to the FDA that changes they make to target these strains trigger an adequate number of antibodies to fight them. Companies can test this in a small group of people. They are not required to conduct large clinical trials each year, as they must before getting approval for a novel vaccine.

Updated guidance from the FDA issued in February 2021 outlines similar steps for COVID-19 variants, a process known in the industry as “plug and play.” Manufacturers who tweak their shots can test immune response in a modest number of people—likely several hundred, experts expect. The guidance recommends including people who have various COVID-19 vaccine histories, from no prior shots to all recommended boosters. But it doesn’t mandate testing the vaccine in all age groups, such as children or older people.

Should a strain change be needed for COVID-19, the FDA will need to move even faster than it does for influenza. “With flu they have six months to develop new shots; with the coronavirus pandemic, they’ll need it now. But no shortcuts will be taken,” Osterholm insists.

Companies will have to follow their current manufacturing processes identically for any tweaked shot they put forward. This is the key to keeping them safe, he says. Large numbers of unexpected side effects in flu shots haven’t turned up since the swine flu vaccine in 1976, when dozens of people developed the neurological disorder Guillain-Barré syndrome.
Osterholm attributes that to shifts in how the flu shots were manufactured, not to the change in strain.

To gauge whether Omicron will require changes in our vaccines and boosters, scientists in the U.S. are closely watching the variant’s behavior in other countries, including Israel and the United Kingdom, where nationalized health systems allow them to quickly link vaccination records with COVID-19 cases.

“Throughout the pandemic, these countries have been turning around large data sets in seven to 10 days,” Osterholm says. Information from South Africa, where the variant is widely spreading, will also reveal whether Omicron has infected a higher percentage of seriously ill patients who were vaccinated compared to Delta.

Tests on the blood of vaccinated people are also used to determine how well antibodies might take down Omicron. These preliminary lab studies have already shown that three doses of Pfizer’s vaccine are effective against the variant, the company says. But these “viral neutralization assays” have limited value, Osterholm says. “This can potentially demonstrate that there is a substantial decrease in neutralization, but you still have to translate that to clinical care,” he says.

Even if the original vaccines are found to be less effective against Omicron, they may still prove potent enough, especially because vaccines stimulate our immune system’s T-cells as well as the antibody-producing B-cells. The problem is they don’t mobilize as quickly. “This cellular immune response takes time, so more people might get sick while it is gearing up—what we’ve been calling breakthrough infections,” Cooper says.

Still, getting one of the currently available shots, including all recommended boosters, “is the best tool we have now,” so everyone should do that, Weatherhead says.

Eventually, manufacturers might come up with a universal vaccine, one that would be effective against all of the variants that might arise. The idea is that it would target several essential features of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, rather than only one, around which the virus could evolve, Cooper says.

This technique may once have seemed pie-in-the-sky, Cooper says. But the success of the mRNA technology and the amount of science learned about virus-host interactions from this pandemic “has bolstered the idea of universal vaccines against major viruses like coronavirus and flu enough that we could see clinical trials start within a few years.”

730 fully-vaccinated Missourians have died from COVID-19, a fraction of all recorded deaths [KTVI Fox 2 St. Louis, 9 Dec 2021]

by Kevin S. Held

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The latest data and information from the Missouri health department says 730 people who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 still died from the virus. However, this proves the efficacy of the vaccines, since those deaths make up far less than a tenth of all vaccinated people in the state.

According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS), the state has recorded 760,035 cumulative cases of SARS-CoV-2—an increase of 2,475 positive cases (PCR testing only)—and 12,708 total deaths as of Thursday, Dec. 9, an increase of 14 over yesterday. That’s a case fatality rate of 1.67%.

It’s important to keep in mind that not all cases and deaths recorded occurred in the last 24 hours.

The state has administered 181,338 doses—including booster shots—of the vaccine in the last 7 days (this metric is subject to a delay, meaning the last three days are not factored in). The highest vaccination rates are among people over 65.

Vaccination is the safest way to achieve herd immunity. Herd immunity for COVID-19 requires 80% to 90% of the population to have immunity, either by vaccination or recovery from the virus.

Just 2.07% of 3.2 million fully vaccinated Missourians have tested positive for COVID. And only 730 people (or 0.02%) of fully vaccinated people have died.

The first doses were administered in Missouri on Dec. 13, 2020.

Joplin, St. Louis City, and Kansas City, as well as St. Louis, St. Charles, Boone, Atchison, and Jackson counties are the only jurisdictions in the state with at least 50% of their population fully vaccinated. Thirty-five other jurisdictions in the state are at least 40% fully vaccinated: Cole, Franklin, Greene, Cape Girardeau, Jefferson, Nodaway, Cass, Ste. Genevieve, Carroll, Andrew, Callaway, Gasconade, Christian, Benton, Adair, Clinton, Dade, Livingston, Ray, Lafayette, Montgomery, Shelby, Osage, Henry, Clay, Camden, Warren, Howard, Cooper, Phelps, Stone, St. Francois, Holt, and Chariton counties, as well as the city of Independence.

The Bureau of Vital Records at DHSS performs a weekly linkage between deaths to the state and death certificates to improve quality and ensure all decedents that died of COVID-19 are reflected in the systems. As a result, the state’s death toll will see a sharp increase from time to time. Again, that does not mean a large number of deaths happened in one day; instead, it is a single-day reported increase.

At the state level, DHSS is not tracking probable or pending COVID deaths. Those numbers are not added to the state’s death count until confirmed in the disease surveillance system either by the county or through analysis of death certificates.

The 7-day rolling average for cases in Missouri sits at 2,260; yesterday, it was 2,259. Exactly one month ago, the state rolling average was 846.

The 10 days with the most reported cases occurred between Oct. 10, 2020, and Nov. 18, 2021.

Approximately 50.0% of all reported cases are for individuals 39 years of age and younger. The state has further broken down the age groups into smaller units. The 18 to 24 age group has 91,402 recorded cases, while 25 to 29-year-olds have 64,217 cases.

People 80 years of age and older account for approximately 41.7% of all recorded deaths in the state.

Missouri has administered 8,018,605 PCR tests for COVID-19 over the entirety of the pandemic and as of Dec. 8, 17.1% of those tests have come back positive. People who have received multiple PCR tests are not counted twice, according to the state health department.

According to the state health department’s COVID-19 Dashboard, “A PCR test looks for the viral RNA in the nose, throat, or other areas in the respiratory tract to determine if there is an active infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. A positive PCR test means that the person has an active COVID-19 infection.”

The Missouri COVID Dashboard no longer includes the deduplicated method of testing when compiling the 7-day moving average of positive tests. The state is now only using the non-deduplicated method, which is the CDC’s preferred method. That number is calculated using the number of tests taken over the period since many people take multiple tests. Under this way of tabulating things, Missouri has a 12.8% positivity rate as of Dec. 6. Health officials exclude the most recent three days to ensure data accuracy when calculating the moving average.

The 7-day positivity rate was 4.5% on June 1, 10.2% on July 1, and 15.0% on Aug. 1.

As of Dec. 6, Missouri is reporting 1,672 COVID hospitalizations and a rolling 7-day average of 1,600. The remaining inpatient hospital bed capacity sits at 19% statewide. The state’s public health care metrics lag behind by three days due to reporting delays, especially on weekends.
Keep in mind that the state counts all beds available and not just beds that are staffed by medical personnel.

On July 6, the 7-day rolling average for hospitalizations eclipsed the 1,000-person milestone for the first time in four months, with 1,013 patients. The 7-day average for hospitalizations had previously been over 1,000 from Sept. 16, 2020, to March 5, 2021.

On Aug. 5, the average eclipsed 2,000 patients for the first time in more than seven months. It was previously over 2,000 from Nov. 9, 2020, to Jan. 27, 2021.

The 2021 low point on the hospitalization average in Missouri was 655 on May 29.

Across Missouri, 387 COVID patients are in ICU beds, leaving the state’s remaining intensive care capacity at 19%.

If you have additional questions about the coronavirus, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is available at 877-435-8411.

As of Dec. 9, the CDC identified 49,458,520 cases of COVID-19 and 790,766 deaths across all 50 states and 9 U.S.-affiliated districts, jurisdictions, and affiliated territories, for a national case-fatality rate of 1.60%.

How do COVID deaths compare to other illnesses, like the flu or even the H1N1 pandemics of 1918 and 2009? It’s a common question.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), preliminary data on the 2018-2019 influenza season in the United States shows an estimated 35,520,883 cases and 34,157 deaths; that would mean a case-fatality rate of 0.09 percent. Case-fatality rates on previous seasons are as follows: 0.136 percent (2017-2018), 0.131 percent (2016-2017), 0.096 percent (2015-2016), and 0.17 percent (2014-2015).

The 1918 H1N1 epidemic, commonly referred to as the “Spanish Flu,” is estimated to have infected 29.4 million Americans and claimed 675,000 lives as a result; a case-fatality rate of 2.3 percent. The Spanish Flu claimed greater numbers of young people than typically expected from other influenzas.

Beginning in January 2009, another H1N1 virus—known as the “swine flu”—spread around the globe and was first detected in the US in April of that year. The CDC identified an estimated 60.8 million cases and 12,469 deaths; a 0.021 percent case-fatality rate.