New Coronavirus News from 31 Dec 2021

Covid: UK cases reach record again as PM urges New Year's Eve caution [BBC News, 31 Dec 2021]

By Adam Durbin & Lauren Turner

The UK is in an "incomparably better" position than this time last year - but people should stay cautious when out on New Year's Eve, the PM has said.

In a year-end message, Boris Johnson hailed the "heroic" vaccination effort, adding that all adults in England had now been offered a booster jab.

The PM urged those celebrating tonight to take a Covid test and "remember the importance of ventilation".

UK daily Covid cases reached another record high of 189,846 on Friday.

There were also 203 deaths reported within 28 days of a positive test.

And daily hospital admissions were up to 1,915 in the most recent figures available, from 27 December, compared with 1,506 the previous day.

However, the overall number of Covid patients in hospital only rose by 20, suggesting the number of patients admitted was broadly similar to the number being discharged.

New Year's Eve celebrations have been scaled back across much of the country as the more infectious Omicron variant continues to drive up cases.

Mr Johnson resisted calls to impose new regulations in England in the run-up to new year, but in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, tighter rules are now in place for pubs, bars and restaurants.

Events, including the traditional Trafalgar Square party in London and Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations, have been cancelled.

Amid warnings people should celebrate outdoors or in well-ventilated places, the Met Office said the UK was experiencing the warmest New Year's Eve on record - with Merryfield in Somerset recording a temperature of 15.8C (60.4F) earlier on Friday.

'I've done everything asked of me'
Benjamin Smith, from London, told the BBC he would be heading out to celebrate the new year, despite not often doing so in the past.

"I've had three jabs and recently recovered from an Omicron infection," he said, adding he would be going to a music event requiring proof of vaccination.

"I work in the events sector. We have had a torrid time of it throughout the pandemic, and I was effectively banned from doing my job for 15 months.

"I've done everything asked of me, and now is the time to do away with rules and allow people to make their own decisions. We can't be so averse to risk forever. "

"We were worried before Christmas about a lockdown, but are really pleased this hasn't come about," she said.

Joanne says she is fully vaccinated and has had her booster, and is currently taking lateral flow tests every day "as I have had a cold".

"I have followed all the advice, all the rules, got vaccinated - all so we can get on with life. To lock down now would be cruel," she adds.

But Peter, from Shropshire, plans to stay home and enjoy "the simple pleasures of life".

"One night in the year is no big deal! We don't need to have masses of drink or people to be happy."

The Department of Health and Social Care said it had met the goal set by the prime minister earlier this month for all eligible adults in England to be offered a Covid booster by 31 December.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also said they had met the booster target.

More than 90% of the UK population aged 12 and over have now received a first dose of a vaccine, it added.

Meanwhile, new data has shown a booster vaccine is initially 88% effective at preventing people ending up in hospital with coronavirus.

The UK Health Security Agency said there was not enough data to work out how long the protection would last, however.

The boosters work: it looks like a third dose better than halves your chances of catching a case of Omicron that puts you in hospital.

Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of everyone behind the vaccine rollout, nearly 30% of people with two doses are yet to receive a booster.

And while Omicron looks to be roughly one-third as severe as Delta, cases are already three times higher than they were before the latest variant arrived.

And Plan B restrictions haven't checked Omicron, so we could see numbers run higher still.
We should prepare for rises in admissions, baked in by current case figures; more than a million cases were reported in the past week.

We're already seeing those effects in England, where slightly more current data show sharp rises in admissions.

Things are looking far, far better than they did last December - but the coming weeks will not be easy.

Analysis of the Omicron variant has shown people who catch it are up to 70% less likely to need hospital treatment compared with other variants.

But leading statistician Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter warned daily cases in the UK could be far higher than official statistics show because of problems with testing, and the fact reinfections are not counted.

"We could be talking about half a million new infections per day," he said.

Prof Sir David said there was going to be "a huge wave of cases" that "is going to cause big disruption" in hospitals - but that in terms of "very serious outcomes", there was cause to be optimistic.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the rise in hospitalisations was particularly affecting over 60s, but that the UK now has "some of the strongest defences this country has ever had during this pandemic", including antivirals.

In other developments:
• New ONS figures show nearly 2.3 million people in the UK - about one in 30 - would have tested positive for Covid in the week ending 23 December
• In London, the rate has doubled to around one in 15 people compared with the previous seven days
• An antiviral pill to treat Covid - Paxlovid - has been approved for use across the UK, the medicines regulator says
• There have been calls for NHS staff to be given priority for lateral flow tests from healthcare unions, with pharmacists reporting that supply remains "patchy"
• Health Secretary Sajid Javid says the government expects to need to "constrain" supply of the rapid tests for two weeks to manage demand, but the number is being tripled to 300 million a month
• A major retailer has told the BBC if the shortage of kits is not sorted by next week, it could lead to 1,600 lost days in January because of its staff having to quarantine for longer.

Dec 31: What we know about the Omicron variant so far [Hindustan Times, 31 Dec 2021]

Two studies, both released this week, confirmed the T Cell connection to the theory that Omicron is likely to lead to milder disease than Delta did.

New studies released this week now confirm what was thought to be the second reason why Omicron is likely to lead to milder disease than Delta did.

The adaptive component of the human body continues to recognise cells infected by the new variant of concern (VOC), eliminating them before they multiply to such a large extent that the disease becomes severe.

At play is what is known as the T Cell immunity, which has two sorts of cells – helper (CD4) and killer (CD8). These are different from antibodies, which are synthesised by B cells.

The Omicron variant has mutations that can cheat the antibody response but, as the new studies show, they are still susceptible to the killer cells. At least partly, this explains why the disease is halted before it gets more serious.

Studies published earlier this month showed the Omicron variant was significantly less capable in binding to lung cells and most of the people infected in hot spot regions of South Africa and UK were vaccinated or had a past infection -- two other factors attributed for the variant’s possibly decreased virulence.

The first new study on T cells was carried out by researchers in South Africa, who took samples from a group of 70 people that included people with prior Covid-19 and full vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNTech and J&J vaccines.

The researchers found that that “70-80% of the CD4 and CD8 T cell response to spike was maintained across study groups” and that the intensity with which the T cells reacted with the Omicron variant was similar to magnitude of when they reacted with Beta or Delta variants, “despite Omicron harbouring considerably more mutations”.

There was a fear that this would not happen – a virus that has changed drastically will be better able to fool the body’s defences. Omicron has 32-36 mutations in the spike protein (the protrusion that latches onto target cells) while Beta, the most resistant variant prior to Omicron, had only 11.

Thankfully, the T cell response recognises all of the spike.

The second study, by another group that was based at the La Jolla Institute in California but collaborated with the first group, had a more detailed quantification of the T cell response. They found that “84% and 85% of CD4 and CD8 T cell responses were preserved”.

How significant is this?

It reinforces the need for vaccination. All vaccines elicit a repertoire of immune response, including B cell and T cell responses. People who may be completely immune naïve will lack the T cell response that the researchers found in their studies.

The second is that the evolution of the S protein must be monitored to see the degree to which it changes. A spike that changes more of the “epitopes” – the locations that T cells recognise – would mean even this adaptive immune response would be lost.

“The resilience of the T cell response demonstrated here also bodes well in the event that more highly mutated variants emerge in the future. We still need to see how long T cell immunity lasts, but after Sars1 it was still detectable after 17yrs,” said Wendy Burgers, one of the South African researchers in a tweet.

The La Jolla team added in their report: “Nevertheless, the data also underline the need for continued surveillance and the potential danger posed by continued variant evolution that could result in further reduction of T cell responses.”

Dec. 31 forecast: Omicron wave of infections begins now [OHSU News, 31 Dec 2021]

By Erik Robinson

Extremely contagious virus variant will severely strain Oregon hospital capacity
A wave of hospitalizations will begin accelerating now in Oregon with a peak coming by the end of January, according to an updated COVID-19 forecast from Oregon Health & Science University.

Even though the omicron variant appears to cause a lower overall rate of severe illness than the previously dominant delta variant, its rapid spread combined with its ability to elude previous immunity will drive an unprecedented number of infections and a corresponding increase in hospitalizations.

The wave of infections will place severe strain on hospital capacity.

“People should take extreme caution, especially if they’re going to be around people at higher risk including older adults and those who are immunocompromised,” said Peter Graven, Ph.D., director of the OHSU Office of Advanced Analytics. “I expect hospitalizations will start accelerating now and peak by the end of January.”

Graven projects that the surge of infections will accelerate earlier, based on the rapid spread of the virus and accompanying hospitalizations on the East Coast of the United States. The updated forecast also draws on new data from Europe indicating a higher rate of vaccinated people are becoming infected.

The new forecast projects Oregon hospitalizations peaking at about 1,650 people by the end of January – higher than the 1,250 people he projected in his last forecast, on Dec. 23. A month from now, Graven expects the virus will find fewer people who have not already been recently infected or vaccinated and hospitalizations will fall rapidly as they have in South Africa.

Oregon is increasing the number of people currently getting booster shots; however, the updated forecast incorporates data showing that infections in Europe and the East Coast are spreading more quickly and will also likely spread rapidly in Oregon.

“Now is not the time to be resigned to getting COVID,” Graven said. “It will be especially important to protect those most vulnerable to severe illness over the next few weeks.

“If people wear facial coverings and avoid indoor gatherings, it could help to flatten the curve. That will help to ensure all Oregonians continue to have access to hospital care when they need it, whether it’s for COVID-19 or all of the other life-threatening conditions that demand care in a hospital.”

Oregon hospitalizations peaked at 1,187 on Sept. 1 during the surge of infections from the delta variant.

Hospitalizations are already rising in Oregon, after falling as low as 339 just a week ago. As of Thursday, Dec. 30, a total of 440 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Oregon, according to the latest figures from the Oregon Health Authority.

Portland-area health care leaders are calling on Oregonians to:
• Get vaccinated or boosted if they haven’t already, and go to https://getvaccinated.oregon.gov/#/ for more information.
• Wear a mask indoor public settings.
• Avoid large gatherings.

In addition, OHSU is providing resources for those seeking a test and vaccine. Those who experience symptoms, or test positive, should first call their health care provider before seeking care in a hospital emergency room. OHSU has also established a toll-free hotline for people anywhere in the state to seek guidance about symptoms and care for COVID-19.
Oregonians can call 833-OHSU-CCC (833-647-8222) seven days a week between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Omicron is highly transmissible. Scientists are looking for clues as to why : Goats and Soda [NPR, 31 Dec 2021]

BY WILL STONE

In late November, more than 110 people gathered at a crowded Christmas party at a restaurant in Oslo, Norway. Most of the guests were fully vaccinated. One had returned from South Africa just a few days earlier and was unknowingly carrying the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.

Ultimately, about 70% of the partygoers were infected.

Scientists who traced this superspreader event concluded it was evidence that omicron was "highly transmissible" among fully vaccinated adults.

Just over a month later, omicron's speedy worldwide ascent now makes it abundantly clear that the party wasn't an isolated example. In country after country, the new variant has outcompeted its predecessor, the delta variant, with one case of omicron sparking at least three other new infections on average. Cases have soared to record highs in parts of Europe and now the U.S., where about half a million new infections have been recorded in a single day.

"This is a game-changing virus, especially in the vaccinated population where people have had a level of invincibility," says Sumit Chanda, a professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Research.

Indeed, in a world where vaccinations and infections have built up immunity, other variants were having trouble gaining a foothold. Yet omicron is thriving.

"This changes the calculus for everybody," says Chanda.

And so scientists are trying to figure out: What accounts for omicron's lightning-quick spread?

While it's still early, they're starting to piece together why the new variant is so contagious — and whether that means old assumptions about how to stay safe need to be revamped.

A big question: How does it fare in the air?

So far, omicron's best trick — what helps explain its success more than anything else — is dodging our immunity: the antibodies and other immune defenses put on by the body after vaccination and/or prior infection.

The variant's many mutations on the spike protein allow it to infect human cells more efficiently than previous variants could, leaving many more people again vulnerable. Because of that, "immune escape" alone could be the major reason why the variant looks so contagious compared with delta, which was already highly transmissible.

In fact, omicron has been spreading at a pace that's comparable to how fast the original strain of the coronavirus spread at the very beginning of the pandemic, despite the world's newfound levels of immunity.

"The playing field for the virus right now is quite different than it was in the early days," says Dr. Joshua Schiffer, an infectious disease researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. "The majority of variants we've seen to date couldn't survive in this immune environment."

Even delta was essentially at a "tie," he says, where it was persisting, but "not growing very rapidly or decreasing very rapidly."

A new study from Denmark suggests that much of the variant's dominance comes down to its ability to evade the body's immune defenses.

Researchers compared the spread of omicron and of delta among members of the same household and concluded that omicron is about 2.7 to 3.7 times more infectious than the delta variant among vaccinated and boosted individuals.

But here's an interesting additional point: For unvaccinated people, there was no significant difference in rates of infection between delta and omicron. That would indicate that both variants are about at the same level of transmissibility among the unvaccinated. In other words, under those circumstances, omicron is not necessarily more transmissible than delta.

If confirmed, the findings would support the idea that omicron's increased transmissibility can be ascribed to its "immune evasiveness" — not some other characteristics that make the variant inherently more transmissible, the authors conclude.

This is also what a small study from the University of Maryland may hint at, although here, too, the findings are preliminary and yet to be peer-reviewed.

Researchers measured how much virus that vaccinated people who were infected with omicron were releasing into the air after shouting and singing. Four out of the five were exhaling ample amounts of virus into the air — comparable to the amount shed by unvaccinated people earlier in the pandemic.

"But what's striking is that I was expecting to see the amounts be much higher, and they are not," says Dr. Don Milton, an infectious disease aerobiologist at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, who led the study.

The findings suggest that the spread of omicron could hinge, in part, on the fact that more vaccinated people are contagious and shedding virus, not necessarily that each infected individual is releasing a lot more virus into the air. And if the results hold true, Milton says long-distance transmission is unlikely to become a new concern with omicron, above and beyond what's already been seen with other contagious variants like delta.

"With measles, for example, the source strength is just so intense that even in the next room, people are still at risk of getting infected," he says. "And you don't see much of that with this virus" because it gets so diluted by the time it reaches the next room.

But there is a down side. Says Milton: "The bad news is the vaccine doesn't mean you're not going to transmit it to somebody else."

And he adds that the findings are ultimately limited to those who are vaccinated: "Maybe you get an unvaccinated person, it [the amount of virus] is a whole lot more intense."

Omicron could have other advantages that give it a leg up
With so many mutations, it's still quite possible that omicron does have additional advantages that make it more contagious than other variants — advantages that rely on more than breaking through our prior immunity.

Maybe omicron can produce more copies of itself in a cell? Or maybe it sticks to cells more effectively? Or maybe it's better at hanging in the air and staying infectious?

"Any of those things would make the virus more contagious," says Schiffer of Fred Hutchinson.
One key difference emerging with omicron is just how quickly someone who gets infected becomes contagious.

Omicron appears to have a shorter incubation period and that can substantially speed up infections across the population. A study of the Oslo Christmas party outbreak found the incubation period could be about three days, compared with 4.3 days for delta and five days for other variants. A small study from CDC also puts the incubation period at about three days.

"That's actually a fairly significant difference," says Schiffer. This would mean there are many more cycles of infections and less time for people who are exposed to take precautions not to expose others.

A mid-December study from Hong Kong has also led scientists to consider that omicron may indeed replicate better in certain cells and therefore have a leg up against delta, at least among the unvaccinated.

Researchers found that omicron multiplied about 70 times faster than delta did in tissue samples from the bronchus — the large airways that lead from the trachea to the lungs. Meanwhile, omicron had much more trouble infecting cells in lung tissue than the original version of the coronavirus that was first identified in Wuhan, China.

"Potentially you could be shedding more virus in your upper respiratory tract than you would be if most of the replication was happening deep in your lungs," says Angie Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.

Like other variants, omicron spreads from the nose and mouth through respiratory droplets at close range and through virus particles that float through the air and can stay suspended for quite awhile, especially in places with poor ventilation.

Rasmussen says this data on faster replication in the bronchus tissue "would suggest you might have more virus in those respiratory secretions, which can come out either as mucus if you have a runny nose or certainly can be exhaled as aerosols and droplets."

Airborne concerns as omicron spreads If omicron does spread more easily through the air, this faster replication in the bronchus would be one of the two most likely explanations, says Linsey Marr, a professor of engineering at Virginia Tech who studies how viruses transmit in the air. "Infected people are either releasing a lot more virus particles into the air or you can breathe in fewer of them and still become infected — or some combination of those," she says.

While that Hong Kong study focused on what happens in the lab, a cautionary tale of omicron spreading through the air has also emerged from an isolation facility there.

In a report published in early December, Hong Kong scientists describe how a traveler in quarantine at a hotel had infected a person staying across the hallway but never actually had face-to-face contact. "Airborne transmission across the corridor" is the most probable explanation, the authors conclude.

"That suggests a very small amount of the virus was able to cause an infection," says Dr. Michael Klompas, an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital. This could mean that omicron requires a smaller dose than previous variants to infect people, although there's no data yet to establish whether that is true, he says.
While concerning, such early anecdotes need to be interpreted carefully. There are similar instances of airborne transmission with delta, and hotels and other places repurposed to isolate infected travelers are difficult places to turn into quarantine facilities.

"Can we catch omicron more easily through the air than other variants? I don't think that's known" says Rasmussen. "What is very clear is that you can catch it more easily, period."
A somewhat reassuring point

Despite the many unanswered questions about why omicron is so contagious, scientists say it's important to realize that the coronavirus has not morphed into an entirely new virus.

"The rules haven't changed; it's just the margin for error has got a lot smaller," says Klompas.
When it comes to minimizing your personal risk, the same principles apply: Wear a high-quality mask like an N95, choose outdoors over indoors if possible and avoid large gatherings with unmasked people, especially if they are not vaccinated.

"These risk-reduction measures are additive and you should try to apply as many of them as possible," says Rasmussen.

Even quick face-to-face interactions appear to be more risky with omicron, in part because people have relied on the vaccines as their only layer of defense, says Chanda. "If you walk into a room full of people and someone is infected, the chances have dramatically increased that you will get the virus" — whether you're vaccinated or boosted or not.

New Coronavirus News from 15 Dec 2021

Let's Not Be Fatalistic About Omicron. We Know How to Fight It [TIME, 15 Dec 2021]

BY GAVIN YAMEY , WILLIAM HANAGE AND TOM MOULTRIE

Moultrie is a Professor of Demography at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where he directs the Centre for Actuarial Research

The new, heavily mutated variant of SARS-CoV-2, Omicron first detected by scientists in South Africa, has put the public health community worldwide on high alert and the public on edge.
Since then, evidence has mounted that the variant is highly transmissible. It is far more transmissible than, and is coming to predominate over, its immediately preceding variant, Delta. Omicron’s doubling time—how long it takes for the number of coronavirus cases to double—is just two to three days.

The first indications from South Africa are that infection with the Omicron variant may have milder consequences than infections with previous variants, especially in vaccinated people.
Despite some claims, it’s premature to conclude that Omicron will cause mild illness with few consequences. For example, in South Africa’s Omicron wave, infected people have tended to be younger than in previous waves, and we know that younger people are more likely to have more mild disease when infected with any SARS-CoV-2 variant. And given the time lags between infections, hospitalisations, and deaths, it is still too soon even for South Africa to pick up a signal in its excess death monitoring system, one of the few real-time such systems among low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Omicron is coming at us fast, but its full impact will take time to become apparent.

How did high-income countries respond to the news? Unfortunately, with knee-jerk travel bans rather than anything that might be mistaken for a coherent public health response.

Punishing South Africa for alerting the world to a new variant of concern is exactly the wrong way to be dealing with Omicron. The only effective response is global action and solidarity.
Unfortunately, examples of both have been thin since the pandemic started. Omicron has so far been detected in 63 countries, and is surging in many of them. There is preliminary evidence, including from South Africa and the United Kingdom, that COVID-19 vaccines are less effective against Omicron than against Delta in preventing illness. The good news is that emerging data show that a booster dose restores high levels of vaccine effectiveness. The bad news is that too many people in the world have not had any doses of vaccine at all. We will need strategies worldwide to enhance vaccine equity and access and to scale up other protective measures alongside vaccines. Early evidence also suggests that unvaccinated people who have been infected with the virus in the past are not well-protected against Omicron—re-infection appears to be common.

Given all of these initial data, the World Health Organization (WHO) calls Omicron a “high risk” variant that could lead to further surges worldwide with severe consequences. What might these surges look like?

A massive spike in cases worldwide could be hugely disruptive and could lead to increased deaths. Even in the best-case scenario in which Omicron causes a mild illness, the repercussions could be huge. Imagine, for example, that the entire world caught a cold at the same time. There would be a rise in deaths among older, vulnerable people—such as those in nursing homes—and the mass absences from work would have major societal consequences. Even if only a small percentage of people get ill or die, a small percentage of a very large number would still be a large number. And in many nations, including the U.S., there is no slack in the health system to deal with another surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations. Hospitals are already at capacity dealing not just with COVID-19 (cases and deaths from Delta are rising in the U.S.) but with catching up on a backlog of surgeries and other treatments delayed or deferred by the pandemic.

Yet, there is no need for fatalism. Unlike the start of the pandemic, we now have a wide range of science-based tools that we can and must marshal.

In the face of the Omicron risk, the number one priority for all countries is to vaccinate the unvaccinated, especially those at highest risk: older adults, health care workers (including those who work with and care for the elderly in care homes), and people with underlying health conditions. As the WHO notes, “vaccines are likely to have some effectiveness against Omicron, particularly for severe disease, even if the performance is reduced compared with other variants.” Globally, the brunt of illness and death will fall on LMICs, where very few people have been vaccinated. Only 7.5% of Africa’s population are fully vaccinated.

After an exceedingly slow start, the supply of vaccines to LMICs has increased in recent months, and some middle-income countries in particular have been able to achieve good vaccination coverage. But there’s still much to be done to expand vaccine access. Rich nations should urgently donate doses to initiatives such as the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust and COVAX that are vaccinating populations in LMICs. So far, such donations have been miserly, ad hoc, and unreliable. Rich nations have also pre-purchased way more doses than they can ever use and should redirect the excess to LMICs immediately. Alongside donations, rich countries and vaccine companies must stop blocking LMICs from making their own doses. Omicron will hopefully spur the rich world to finally share vaccine patents and manufacturing know-how and support the globalized manufacture of doses.

In the United States, 3 in 10 people have not even had one vaccine dose. Political partisanship in the US is unfortunately the single most important predictor of vaccination status, with Republicans much less likely to be vaccinated than Democrats, so we will need Republican leaders to advocate that the unvaccinated get their shots. Given the emerging data that a booster dose improves vaccine effectiveness, getting boosters urgently to high-risk people, such as health workers, incarcerated people, and nursing home residents, is crucial. Staff working in these settings must also be vaccinated. Since nursing home staff can spread coronavirus to residents, and given that low vaccination rates among staff are linked with higher rates of infection and death among residents, there’s a strong case for mandatory staff vaccination in these settings and regular rapid tests to prevent the virus being introduced to them.

But a “vaccine only” strategy will not be enough to blunt the force of Omicron and prevent spikes in hospital admissions. We need “vaccine plus”: a surge of other evidence-based measures, alongside vaccines, to match the surge of SARS-CoV-2. We need a comprehensive public health strategy.

Governments should make available free rapid antigen tests (as has been done in the UK) and high-filtration masks to all households, even by mail. A positive rapid test shows you are infectious to others, which gives you the knowledge to stay home and help break the cycles of transmission. Visitors to high-risk settings, such as nursing homes, should do a rapid test and not visit if the test is positive. In addition, physical distancing, ventilating indoor spaces, hand hygiene, avoiding crowds, and reducing one’s number of social contacts can also help to control transmission of the more transmissible Omicron variant. In the U.S., the same partisanship that has influenced vaccination uptake is likely to also influence adoption of these other prevention measures, so we will need Republican governors and mayors to do their part to help protect their constituents. We need a collective, non-partisan, public health response. The virus doesn’t care how you vote.

We cannot know, of course, whether Omicron will be the last variant of concern. Another one could be around the corner. There would be much less anxiety, however, about any new variant if we had a “joined up” global health program in place: preparation can allay panic.

Our goal must be to reopen society in a way that does not cause mass illness and death.
SARS-CoV-2 is not going to be eradicated, and we need to plan and prepare for what lies on the other side of the current Omicron wave. We can aim for a situation in which COVID-19 still circulates but there is much less transmission and much less severe illness, hospitalizations, and deaths, perhaps with seasonal peaks—a scenario akin to influenza. For that to happen, we’re going to need to vaccinate and boost the vast majority of people worldwide.

If we can achieve that, and with Omicron as the dominant variant globally, in most cases getting infected would cause no symptoms or just mild ones, requiring just a few days off work. Perhaps you’d wear a mask for a few days to protect others when you returned to the office. But in this scenario, one will be placing co-workers, and—indirectly—their families, at near-negligible risk of death. It is too soon to know whether three doses of vaccine will be enough to provide lasting immunity or whether, as with the influenza vaccine, we’ll need an annual shot (potentially tailored to specific strains). There may continue to be localized outbreaks, especially in places with low vaccination rates, requiring local use of measures like masks and distancing to drive down transmission and to protect the vulnerable.

Omicron is coming fast. We hope that it causes just a mild illness, but even this outcome could have massive health and societal impacts worldwide. Don’t forget the great majority of people infected in the pandemic to date have experienced mild illness, and yet the virus has already killed about 800,000 in the U.S. alone. Omicron is teaching us a lesson: our only way out of this pandemic is through global, not national, action, to immunize and boost the world while also using other public health measures to drive down transmission and protect health systems.

Omicron will be a harsh teacher. It remains to be seen if we can finally be good students.

New Coronavirus News from 1 Jan 2022

Study suggests omicron symptoms more mild due to less lung damage [The Hill, 1 Jan 2022]

BY BRAD DRESS

The highly transmissible omicron variant of the coronavirus causes milder symptoms because it has a less severe impact on the upper respiratory system, according to new research.

A consortium of researchers from America and Japan released a study last month revealing omicron causes less damaging effects on the lungs, nose and throat. The study was conducted on mice and hamsters and is under review for publication in a Nature Portfolio journal.

In the study, researchers said omicron results in a "lower viral burden" in animals' upper respiratory systems, making its viral load and replication in those tracts milder and thus less damaging.

The study demonstrates "attenuated lung disease in rodents, which parallels preliminary human clinical data," researchers concluded.

The news follows data from South Africa, where omicron first emerged, showing the country had fewer hospitalizations and fewer deaths after a surge in confirmed coronavirus cases.

It also comes after a study last month published by the University of Hong Kong, which found omicron infects and multiplies 70 times faster than other variants but causes significantly less infection in the lungs.

Omicron has led to a historic spike in confirmed cases around the world and is overwhelming cities such as New York and Washington, D.C. The variant is more transmissible, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, because it can evade past immunity from infection, vaccines and boosters.

Infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci said in an interview last week that the fact that omicron causes milder symptoms does not alleviate the crisis.

"We have to reserve judgement that this is such a good thing that it might be less severe," he said. "When you have so many cases, it essentially obviates any diminution in severity because of the quantitative number of cases you will get with a highly transmissible variant such as omicron."

Covid-19 and Omicron News: Live Updates [The New York Times, 1 Jan 2022]

Pandemic restrictions pared back South Africa’s already modest funeral for Archbishop Desmond Tutu. A German cruise ship is being held in Lisbon after a virus outbreak among crew members.

Here’s what you need to know:
• U.S. flight cancellations hit a record level as Covid thins crews amid severe weather.

• South Africa bids farewell to Desmond Tutu with a modest funeral further limited by Covid restrictions.

• Kim Jong-un pledges to ease North Korea’s chronic food shortages, which have been worsened by the pandemic.

• A crew outbreak halts a German New Year’s cruise in Lisbon.

• The year has changed. The coronavirus surge hasn’t.

• How high will the U.S. surge go after the holidays? Should you get tested?

• Hopeful signs amid the Omicron wave: The week in science news.

U.S. flight cancellations hit a record level as Covid thins crews amid severe weather.

Airlines had canceled more than 2,500 flights across the United States by afternoon on Saturday, by far the worst day in the industry’s weeklong struggle with bad weather and crew shortages.

The cancellations mounted amid reports of heavy snowfall across much of the nation’s midsection, and if the pattern of the last week holds, many more could be canceled by day’s end.

The industry canceled thousands of trips, about 5.7 percent of all scheduled flights, in the week ending on Friday, according to FlightAware, an aviation data provider. Every major U.S. carrier made deep cuts on Saturday, too. Nearly half the cancellations were concentrated at Chicago’s two airports, where heavy snow and strong winds were expected throughout the day into Sunday.

Southwest Airlines said it planned to suspend operations at those airports on Saturday afternoon. The airline cut over 470 flights nationwide, more than any other U.S. carrier, accounting for about 13 percent of its schedule.

“As always, we have safety top-of-mind and, for us, that also means keeping people from driving to airports to wait on long-delayed flights whenever we can avoid that,” Southwest said in a statement.

Delta Air Lines scrubbed 9 percent of scheduled trips, while American and United Airlines each cut 7 percent. In a statement, United, which has its headquarters in Chicago, said that the nationwide spike in coronavirus cases had affected its ability to staff flights, too.

The cancellations contribute to a disappointing time for the industry, both to the end of the holiday season and to a convulsive year characterized by revival and setbacks. Widespread vaccinations early in 2021 gave way to a summer travel boom that was then stifled somewhat by the Delta virus variant. The industry recovery continued to build again in the fall, only to be slowed again by the Omicron variant.

Millions of people have been flying daily within the United States this holiday season. But passenger traffic is still down 15 percent or more from 2019 on most days, according to Transportation Security Administration data. Despite the recent turmoil, U.S. carriers canceled 1.5 percent of scheduled flights in 2021 compared with 1.6 percent in 2019, according to FlightAware.
— Niraj Chokshi

South Africa Lays Desmond Tutu to Rest With a Simple Funeral
Desmond M. Tutu, a powerful opponent of apartheid and Cape Town’s first Black archbishop, was remembered in a modest ceremony scaled down further by pandemic restrictions.

“Archbishop Desmond Tutu was without question a crusader in the struggle for freedom, for justice, for equality and for peace. Not only in South Africa, the country of his birth, but around the world as well.” “I’m standing to convey our family’s thanks for the many ways in which all of you have stepped forward to tell us of how much you loved daddy.”

CAPE TOWN — In an almost empty cathedral, with an unvarnished, rope-handled coffin placed before the altar, South Africa said farewell on Saturday to Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu with the simplicity that he had planned.

Archbishop Tutu’s death last Sunday at age 90 was followed by a week of mourning, as the world remembered his powerful role both in opposing apartheid and in promoting unity and reconciliation after its defeat.

But his funeral in a rain-soaked Cape Town, where pandemic regulations limited attendance to 100 and discouraged crowds outside, was far more subdued than the packed stadiums and parade of dignitaries that mourned South Africa’s other Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Nelson Mandela. It was exactly what the archbishop had wanted.

A hymn sung in his mother tongue, Setswana; Mozart’s “Laudate Dominum”; and a sermon delivered by an old friend were all part of what Archbishop Tutu intended for his requiem Mass, celebrated at St. George’s Cathedral. There would be no official speeches beyond the eulogy, and the only military presence allowed at the funeral of a man who once said, “I am a man of peace, but not a pacifist,” came when an officer brought South Africa’s national flag to be handed to his widow, Nomalizo Leah Tutu.

The coronavirus pandemic further scaled down proceedings. With a limited guest list, the only international heads of state in attendance had a close relationship with the archbishop, like King Letsie III of Lesotho, who spent time with the Tutu family as a child at a boarding school in England. A former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, read one of the prayers during the requiem Mass. With singing discouraged in closed spaces to reduce the spread of the virus, the choir performed in an adjacent hall.

In the week leading up to the funeral, those who were close with Archbishop Tutu said that as he became increasingly frail, they saw a man distressed by South Africa’s enduring social and economic inequality. In the past two years, the pandemic and resulting lockdowns have further deepened poverty, bringing unemployment to record levels.

Under Covid-19 restrictions, at a public viewing site erected in the Grand Parade, Cape Town’s main public square, barely 100 people gathered to watch the service on a big screen. Those who braved the rain said they wanted to say goodbye to a “great man,” like Laurence and Joslyn Vlotman, who brought an umbrella and small camp stool. But many, like Meg Jordi, sat on the ground.

Michael Jatto, a British national on vacation in South Africa from England, took his two daughters to the square to learn about the archbishop — “for us as Africans, for our children to see a great man being shown in a positive light.”
— Lynsey Chutel

Kim Jong-un pledges to ease North Korea’s chronic food shortages, which have been worsened by the pandemic.

SEOUL — Kim Jong-un has begun his second decade as North Korea’s leader with a vow to alleviate the country’s chronic food shortages, state media reported on Saturday. The shortages have been worsened by the coronavirus pandemic and international sanctions against his nuclear weapons program.

Mr. Kim, 37, presided over a five-day meeting this week of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, which drew more attention than usual because it came at the end of his first decade in power.

On Saturday, New Year’s Day, the North’s state media carried lengthy reports on the meeting.
They mentioned no diplomatic overtures from Mr. Kim toward the United States or South Korea, and only a brief reiteration of his frequent promise to increase the North’s military power. But much space was devoted to the subject of food shortages, which many analysts see as the biggest shortcoming of Mr. Kim’s leadership.

One of the first promises that Mr. Kim made after inheriting power from his father, Kim Jong-il, a decade ago was that long-suffering North Koreans would “never have to tighten their belt again.” But that goal has remained elusive. Several months ago, Mr. Kim issued a rare warning that the North faced a “tense” food situation.

At the party meeting that ended on Friday, Mr. Kim pledged to “increase the agricultural production and completely solve the food problem,” specifying production goals “to be attained phase by phase in the coming 10 years,” the North’s Korean Central News Agency said. But Mr. Kim did not appear to introduce any significant agricultural measures, except to forgive all cooperative farms’ debts to the government.

Mr. Kim also called it a “top priority” to tighten loopholes in the North’s campaign against the pandemic. North Korea has claimed that it had no Covid-19 cases, and it has rejected offers of millions of vaccine doses, leaving its population vulnerable to explosive outbreaks should its borders reopen.

There are no signs that North Korea is in danger of the kind of devastating famine that it suffered in the late 1990s. But its grain production totaled only 4.69 million tons this year, leaving a shortage of 800,000 tons, according to estimates released this month by South Korea’s Rural Development Administration. In July, the United States Department of Agriculture estimated that 16.3 million people in the North — 63.1 percent of the population — were “food insecure.”

In the past, North Korea has made up for its agricultural shortfalls with foreign aid and imports. But in response to the pandemic, it has rejected outside aid and shut its borders, making it harder to import fertilizers or farm equipment from neighboring China, the North’s only major trading partner and donor. Pandemic restrictions have also hurt the country’s unofficial markets, which helped circulate food.
— Choe Sang-Hun

A crew outbreak halts a German New Year’s cruise in Lisbon.

A cruise ship operated by a German line and carrying over 4,000 people has been held up in Lisbon after an outbreak of Covid-19 among its crew.

The AIDAnova docked in Lisbon on Dec. 29 and was due to sail a day later toward the island of Madeira, in time to watch a New Year’s Eve fireworks display in the port of Funchal, the main town on the island. But its departure was canceled, and passengers started the year on the Portuguese mainland instead after 52 crew members tested positive for the coronavirus.

The 52 crew members were taken ashore and were being kept isolated in various hotels in Lisbon. All were vaccinated and none are experiencing severe symptoms.
The ship arrived in Lisbon with a crew of 1,353 and 2,844 passengers, most of them Germans, the director of the port of Lisbon, Diogo Vieira Branco, told Lusa, Portugal’s national news agency. The passengers were allowed to go ashore in Lisbon.

AIDA Cruises, the German operator of the ship, could not immediately be reached for comment. But the line told the German news agency DPA that it was trying to find fresh crew members before deciding whether it could resume its itinerary.

The ship was set to sail next to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the northwestern coast of Africa. Earlier in December, another German operator, Tui, was forced to cut short a trip because of a coronavirus outbreak on one of its ships, Mein Schiff 4, which had docked in Las Palmas, the largest city in the Canary Islands.

Registered in Italy, the AIDAnova was launched in 2018 as the world’s first cruise ship powered entirely by liquefied natural gas. On its website, AIDA Cruises specifies that all passengers must be tested for the coronavirus before boarding and that further tests can be required depending on the cruise.
— Raphael Minder

The year has changed. The coronavirus surge hasn’t.

The new year is here and has brought the Omicron-driven virus wave along with it.

More than 3.5 million people worldwide died from the coronavirus in 2021, almost twice as many as in 2020. The Delta variant wreaked havoc around the world, and now the Omicron variant, which has already become dominant in the United States, is fueling a spike in cases.

Omicron has spread to more than 100 countries after it was first identified in Botswana and South Africa in late November, infecting previously vaccinated people as well as those who have previously been infected. But South African officials say their country has now crested its Omicron wave, and new cases are falling, all without a major increase in deaths — offering hope that, while other countries may see similar weeks of intensity, they may also see drop-offs and fewer deaths than in previous waves.

For the United States, the coming weeks look difficult. “We’ll be in for a tough January, as cases will keep going up and peak, and then fall fast,” said Ali Mokdad, a University of Washington epidemiologist who is a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientist.

While virus cases will still overwhelm hospitals, he said, he expects that the proportion of cases resulting in hospitalization will be lower than in earlier waves. Studies in animals suggest that Omicron does not invade the lungs as readily, which may help explain its generally lessened severity.

New estimates from researchers at Columbia University suggest that the United States could peak by Jan. 9 at around 2.5 million cases per week, though that number may go as high as 5.4 million. In New York City, the first U.S. metropolis to see a major surge, the researchers estimated that cases would peak by the first week of the new year.

“It’s shocking. It’s disturbing,” said Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist who led the Columbia modeling work. “We’re seeing unprecedented numbers of Covid-19 cases.”

At the same time, Dr. Shaman said, there is a possibility that as cases fall in areas now experiencing major Omicron surges, other areas currently less affected will see their own Omicron surges, leading to a more rounded case curve nationally. The country’s hottest spots now are mostly clustered in the eastern half of the country.

The United States set a single-day record with 489,000 cases on Wednesday, and then broke the record again on Thursday when it tallied 582,000 cases, according to a New York Times database.

The number of new cases fell from those record numbers on Friday, when many states did not report data on New Year’s Eve. But the tally was still exceptionally high, with 443,000 new cases in just 28 states.

Even the staggering numbers from the past several days are undercounts, as the holiday season causes major distortions in testing and data reporting. The growing use of at-home tests makes the accounting even more questionable.

Genome sequencing shows that Omicron has exponential growth because some of its dozens of mutations appear to speed up transmission. But new studies, including one that surveyed one million coronavirus patients in England, support research that shows that two doses of vaccines are offering significant protection against severe disease, even though Omicron has been consistently better at evading vaccines.

Doctors are urging anyone who is unvaccinated to get their first vaccine dose as soon as possible, and anyone who is inoculated to get a booster shot.

“We are all tired and ready for this to be over,” said Dr. Brian Garibaldi, clinical lead of the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. “But we still have a lot of work to do and a long way to go.”
Sarah Cahalan contributed reporting.
— Adeel Hassan

How high will the U.S. surge go after the holidays? Should you get tested?

The United States is in the midst of a case spike averaging more than 300,000 new cases a day for the first time in the pandemic as holiday gatherings and travel coupled with the proliferation of the highly transmissible Omicron variant have propelled a surge across the country.

On Dec. 30, there was a daily average of 378,516 positive coronavirus cases, a 201 percent increase in the last two weeks, according to a New York Times database. Daily counts increased by 100,000 or more on three days running in the last week. Hospitalizations rose 25 percent in two weeks.

As the Omicron variant speeds through communities around the country, many more people, including those who have been vaccinated, will test positive for the coronavirus. Some projections forecast millions of new cases in the next week.

Here’s what you should know:
What Covid symptoms should I look out for?

Some symptom differences between Omicron and other variants have emerged from preliminary data, but experts are not certain they are meaningful. Data released from South Africa suggest that South Africans with Omicron often develop a scratchy or sore throat along with nasal congestion, a dry cough and muscle pain, especially low back pain.

Meanwhile, the Delta variant is still spreading as well. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the most common Covid symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue, chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache, a loss of the sense of taste or smell and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath.

If you are feeling sick, get tested immediately.

I’m not feeling sick. Should I still get tested?

You can be infected without showing symptoms, and could spread the virus to others, even if you are vaccinated. It is always better to get tested for the coronavirus, especially to try to halt the spread of Omicron. Given the high spread rates in recent weeks, if you have gone to a large gathering it is probably better to get tested.

The current guidance from the C.D.C. says vaccinated people don’t have to quarantine if they have had close contact with someone who has Covid, but that they should get tested five days later. Testing experts, however, say that’s probably not soon enough for Omicron, whose incubation period may be as short as 72 hours. Experts say that the best times to test are on Days 2, 3 and 4 after exposure.

What are my testing options?

There are several testing options. You can test at home with a rapid test purchased from a pharmacy, or you can go get a P.C.R. test at a lab.

If you tested positive after taking a rapid home test, you may want to take a second home test using a different brand or go to a testing center to confirm the result.

I tested positive. What do I do now?
If you’re in public or around people when you receive the news
, put on a mask immediately. Then isolate yourself as quickly as possible, even if you don’t have symptoms.

Last week, the C.D.C slashed the isolation period from 10 to five days for those who are vaccinated, those without symptoms, or those without fevers whose other symptoms were resolving.

Americans leaving isolation should wear masks around others for an additional five days after their isolation periods have ended, officials said.

Some experts, though, have called the new guidelines “reckless” and have suggested to isolate for longer.

To calculate your isolation window, the C.D.C. advises that you consider Day 1 to be the first full day after you develop symptoms.
— Isabella Grullón Paz, Dani Blum, Nicole Stock, Tara Parker-Pope and Melinda Wenner Moyer

Hopeful signs amid the Omicron wave: The week in science news.

Even as coronavirus cases were shooting up at a dizzying pace in the United States this week, scientific evidence arrived providing hope for those who fall ill because of the Omicron variant — and for countries, states and communities battling its surge.

People infected with Omicron were about half as likely to be hospitalized as those with the Delta variant, according to a report from British health officials, and they were only one-third as likely to need emergency care. However, even though risk may be reduced on an individual level, Omicron is still expected to cause further strain on health care systems simply because of the enormous numbers of people it is and will be infecting.

The report, issued by the U.K. Health Security Agency, also showed that vaccination offers strong protection against Covid’s worst outcomes. The risk of hospitalization in Omicron cases was 65 percent lower in people who had received two doses, compared with the unvaccinated, and 81 percent lower in those who had gotten boosters.

Based on 528,176 Omicron cases and 573,012 Delta cases, the report is one of the largest real-world examinations of Omicron infections to date.

Several recent studies on lab animals and human tissues have offered a possible explanation for Omicron’s milder effects: It often concentrates in the nose, throat and windpipe, rather than damaging the lungs, as previous variants did.

More good news came in the form of a laboratory study from South African scientists suggesting that people who have recovered from an Omicron infection may be able to repel infections by the Delta variant. If Omicron outcompetes Delta, that could mean a future with fewer hospitalizations and deaths, making it easier for humanity to coexist with the virus.

Parents received some reassurance this week, as well. While there has been an increase in hospitalizations among children during Omicron’s advance, that appears to simply reflect the vast increase overall in infections. Doctors and researchers said that they were not seeing evidence that the variant was harder on children than previous versions of the virus.
Preliminary data says that Omicron is actually milder in children, as has been the case with adults.

Also, one report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine showed that serious problems among children ages 5 to 11 who had received it were extremely rare, and another found that nearly all serious illnesses in a group of hundreds of pediatric hospitalizations occurred in children who had not been fully vaccinated.

In the bigger picture, the new year dawned with reasons for hope. Omicron will exact a toll, but after it does, more people will have Covid immunity. And newly approved post-infection treatments from Merck and Pfizer have the potential to make Covid a far less deadly disease.
In other science news:
• Novavax plans to ask the Food and Drug Administration to authorize its vaccine this month. It would be the fourth coronavirus vaccine cleared by the federal government. In a report published last month, the company presented evidence that the vaccine, Nuvaxovid, was 90 percent effective against symptomatic infections and 100 percent effective in preventing moderate to severe disease. However, it was not clear how well it would work against the Omicron variant.
• The C.D.C. shortened the recommended isolation period for many infected Americans to five days from 10 days. The change applied to those without symptoms, or those without fevers whose other symptoms were resolving. The agency also significantly lowered its estimate of Omicron’s nationwide prevalence. The C.D.C. had said that Omicron accounted for about 73 percent of variants circulating in the United States in the week ending Dec. 18, but it revised that figure to about 23 percent. On Tuesday, the agency’s estimate was that Omicron accounted for 59 percent of U.S. cases.
— Todd Gregory

Nursing homes in Omicron-ravaged New York struggle to deliver booster shots.

At Sea Crest Nursing and Rehabilitation, a large nursing home that looks out on the Coney Island boardwalk, more than 100 residents have died of Covid-19 since the pandemic began.

Yet as the Omicron variant surges to a new high in New York, the nursing home is struggling to provide what medical experts believe is one of the strongest forms of protection against this latest wave of the virus: a booster shot.

Of the 274 residents of the nursing home, only 52 — fewer than one in five — had received a booster, according to state data from this past week.

Vaccine hesitancy among residents or their families, and residents being ineligible because they recently received second vaccine doses or monoclonal antibodies, are among the causes of the low booster rates at Sea Crest and other nursing homes.

But as Omicron spreads, health experts point to an additional problem: New York, like much of the country, was slow to push boosters before the variant arrived just a few weeks ago, and has largely left administering third doses to the long-term care facilities themselves, some of which are struggling with the task.

Now, with Omicron spreading rapidly in almost every region, health experts are calling on the city and state to do more to ensure that the most vulnerable — particularly nursing home residents — get boosters quickly.

“The city and state should be working together to try to make sure everyone in nursing homes is boosted,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former city health commissioner and a former C.D.C. director. He called nursing homes “ground zero for Covid.”
— Sharon Otterman and Joseph Goldstein

New Year’s Day charity swims are being canceled around the world.

Beaches that normally spring back to life for cold-water plunges on Jan. 1 may remain deserted, as annual New Year’s Day fund-raising swims have become yet another casualty of the Omicron variant.

The swims are a quirky tradition in many Western countries, requiring participants to enter frigid waters to raise money for charity.

But the emergence of Omicron — the highly transmissible variant that is now fueling record surges around the world — has shuttered a range of cultural institutions, from New Year’s Eve celebrations to Broadway shows. And now, largely because of Omicron, some of the world’s most daring — and charitable — swimmers will be kept out of the waters on New Year’s Day.

The status of the charity swims are a reflection of the world’s patchwork approach to Covid restrictions. For some organizers, the cancellations were a yes-or-no decision, while others were inching toward Jan. 1 with contingency plans if the Covid situation worsened.

Many of the North American events are still on, though some will have Covid guidelines. At Coney Island in New York, the New Year’s Day Plunge was set to go on as planned. But at one Seattle event, swimmers must wear masks and have a booster shot.

In Canada, a slate of events have been canceled in Ontario and in British Columbia. But participants in Vancouver and Oakville, Ontario, could still take a “digital dip” by sending a picture of themselves in a snowbank or a kiddie pool.

Swim events on Achill Island in Ireland and in the The Hague were canceled. But in County Wicklow, Ireland, and Catalonia, Spain, charity swims were tentatively moving forward.

In the United Kingdom, where the charity swims are a beloved remedy after New Year’s Eve revelries, events were on in North Yorkshire, England, but off in Edinburgh, Scotland, and in Pembrokeshire, Wales, among other places.

“We are deeply disappointed,” the organizers of the Tenby Boxing Day Swim in Wales said. “Covid wins again.”
— Alyssa Lukpat

Corona cannot stop Indias pace, will fight the pandemic with full caution, vigilance, says PM Modi [Firstpost, 1 Jan 2022]

Narendra Modi lauded India's achievement in providing over 145 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said India will fight the COVID-19 pandemic with full caution and vigilance, and protect its national interests.

Speaking at a virtual event to release funds under the PM-KISAN scheme, Modi also highlighted the achievements made by the country in 2021 across various sectors, including, health, defence and agriculture.

He also lauded the India's achievement in providing over 145 crore doses of Covid vaccine. The Prime Minister said coronavirus posed several challenges, but "Corona cannot stop India's pace".

He stressed that India will fight the COVID-19 pandemic with "full caution and vigilance" and will also protect its national interests. Modi said that during the pandemic, additional food grains for free was provided to over 80 crore beneficiaries, which cost about Rs 2.6 lakh crore to the central exchequer.

He called upon farmers to adopt natural farming, saying there was a lot of demand for such agricultural products in the international market.