New Coronavirus News from 4 Jan 2022

Sweden’s king and queen test positive for the coronavirus. [The New York Times, 4 Jan 2022]

By Aina J. Khan

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and Queen Silvia, his wife, tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday evening, the Swedish Royal Court said in a statement Tuesday.

The king, who is 75, and the queen, who is 78, “have mild symptoms and feel well under the circumstances,” the statement said. Both were fully vaccinated and had received booster shots.

Omicron complicates Winter Olympics [WPRI.com, 4 Jan 2022]

AUSTIN (KXAN) — With one month until the start of the Winter Olympics, cases of COVID-19 continue to rise worldwide as the omicron variant spreads, but deaths are on a downward trend according to data from Worldometer.

Dick Pound, the longest-serving member of the International Olympic Committee, told USA Today Monday there’s “no indication” the Olympics would be canceled but the possibility of doing so remains.

US Speedskating announced this week it will bar all spectators from watching its trials Jan. 5-9 as a COVID-19 precaution.

“It’s vital that we continue to keep a strong focus on the health and welfare of our athletes,” U.S. Speedskating Executive Director Ted Morris said. “Our ability to create a competition bubble provides us with the best situation to protect our athletes while providing them with the opportunity to qualify for the Beijing team at the Olympic Trials. We appreciate the understanding of parents, fans and media so that we can provide the best environment possible for our athletes.”

The Tokyo Olympics clamped down on fans during the Games last year, only allowing people from the host country to attend amid strict COVID-19 safety precautions. And athletes, coaches and staff effectively lived and competed in a “bubble,” where they were only allowed in certain areas of the Olympic Village and competition spaces.

COVID-19 has also affected athletes during their preparations for the Games. Two-time gold medal skier Mikaela Shiffrin tested positive nine days ago and was cleared this week to compete in the women’s World Cup in Croatia, according to the Associated Press. But, her teammate Nina O’Brien has now tested positive and must sit out the slalom on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Men’s hockey team announced its new head coach in late December. David Quinn, who had earlier been tapped as an assistant coach and has worked with the New York Rangers, will now step up after the National Hockey League announced it will not send players or coaches to the Games, according to the Associated Press, concerned that a surge in COVID-19 cases could disrupt its season. The AP reports the decision in mid-December was an abrupt about-face from an earlier deal between the NHL, union, International Olympic Committee and International Ice Hockey Federation that would let those players participate. NHL players also did not participate in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

On the women’s side of the sport, USA Hockey announced its final roster on the first of the year. It includes eight first-time Olympians and 15 who have previously competed at the Games, according to a release on its website. It said Team USA has medaled in every Games since women’s hockey was added in 1998.

Busy day Feb. 13
The Winter Olympics begin the first week in February, and this year coincide with another huge televised event: the Super Bowl. We want to know — which one will you be watching? Vote in our Twitter poll below:
WOOD-TV Sports Director Jack Doles joins us to discuss that big day, plus his take on the latest on the Olympics at 9 a.m. CT.

Posts misleadingly claim Japan 'declared end of Covid' after cases dropped [AFP Factcheck, 4 Jan 2022]

by Richard Kang

A claim circulated online in South Korea in late December 2021 that neighbouring Japan had "declared the end of Covid". The posts were shared as coronavirus infections in South Korea soared while Japan saw a decrease in cases. But as of January 4, 2022, Japanese authorities have not made any such declaration. In fact, officials have warned of a possible rebound in cases from holiday travel and the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

"Japan with a population of 140 million declared the end of Covid-19," reads a Korean-language post shared on Facebook on December 28, 2021.

The post shared a graph of daily Covid cases reported in Japan as of December 27, 2021.
AFP found the graph directly corresponds with genuine data from Johns Hopkins University published here on Google.

It shows daily reported cases in Japan plummeting to 163 on December 27 after cases surged to over 25,000 in late August.

Similar posts were also shared on Facebook here and here and on Twitter here.

"[Korean] countermeasures? They're just a self-flattering move," one social media user wrote in response to a post.

In contrast to the downward trend in Japan's cases in December, daily infections in Korea soared to a record high of nearly 8,000 on December 15.

The daily numbers prompted the Korean government to impose tighter mobility restrictions until mid-January.

The country added more than 3,000 new Covid infections on January 3, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

But the posts are misleading.

'Cases could rebound'

Despite the low number of infections in December, Japanese authorities have warned there could be an uptick in new cases following the holidays and suspected cases of the Omicron variant.

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida urged the country on December 29 to keep wearing masks, wash hands frequently and take other anti-infection measures.

"[The Japanese government] while simulating the worst-case scenario of an expansion in infections in Japan, is doing its best in moving ahead with plans to provide third vaccine shots, the expansion of free PCR tests and supply of treatment pills," Kishida said in a video message.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike also urged residents on December 27 to "avoid busy hours and crowded places, wear a mask properly and refrain from talking loudly".

She said people should "regularly open windows even in cold winter" and added basic measures against infectious diseases are "effective" against Omicron.

Japan recorded over 500 new Covid cases on January 2, according to the country's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Keyword searches on Japanese government websites did not find posts that the country "declared the end of Covid".

Population count
The claim in the misleading posts that Japan has "a population of 140 million" is also inaccurate.

As of December 1, the country's population was 125,470,000, according to the Japan Statistics Bureau.

Japan's Kishida lays out new contigency plan against Omicron risk [WHBL News, 4 Jan 2022]

By Leika Kihara and Kantaro Komiya

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan will gear up efforts to deal with a possible surge in Omicron coronavirus cases and aim to deliver oral treatment using Pfizer Inc’s drugs nationwide next month, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Tuesday.

Kishida also said the government will decide next week whether to extend border controls, which he said had prevented a spike in infection numbers.

“We’ll prepare to shift the focus of Japan’s Omicron response to domestic measures to guard against the worst-case scenario of a possible spike in community transmissions,” Kishida told a news conference.

Aside from antiviral pills developed by Merck & Co Inc already delivered nationwide, the government will aim to roll out “at the earliest date possible in February” Pfizer’s oral treatment drugs in Japan, he said.

As more oral drugs become available, Japan will allow more patients to receive treatment at home to avoid a resurgence in infections from triggering a shortage of hospital beds, he said.

Japan is betting heavily on oral treatments to keep serious infections and deaths at bay should a feared sixth wave of the pandemic emerge. The government agreed in November to pay Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics about $1.2 billion for 1.6 million courses of their drug molnupiravir.

“If a spike in infections lead to a shortage of hospital beds, we must flexibly consider ramping up curbs on activity,” Kishida said.

The prime minister also said he will forgo overseas visits before the next session of parliament starts on Jan. 17 to focus on laying out anti-pandemic measures. There have been media reports that Kishida was planning to visit Australia and the United States before parliament convenes.

In December, Japan confirmed its first known case of an Omicron infection that could not be traced back to overseas travellers.

A total of 993 Omicron cases have been found in Japan as of Monday, including 295 cases considered as community transmissions, according to the health ministry.

Jiji news agency reported that daily COVID-19 infections in Japan exceeded 1,000 on Tuesday for the first time in three months.

The southernmost prefecture of Okinawa has entered the “sixth wave” of the coronavirus, Okinawa goveror Denny Tamaki told reporters on Tuesday, noting the highly transmissible Omicron variant’s role in the spread of infections.

Okinawa reported a fresh 225 virus cases on Tuesday, the highest in more than three months, said Tamaki, adding infections inside U.S. military bases in the prefecture continued to increase.

A coronavirus cluster linked to a U.S. base in Okinawa was discovered last month.

New Coronavirus News from 5 Jan 2022

US daily coronavirus cases top one million [NHK WORLD, 5 Jan 2022]

The number of daily coronavirus infections in the United States has surpassed one million for the first time.

Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University show that new cases in the US hit a record high of more than 1.08 million on Monday. The prior record was 590,000 marked on December 30.

The number of infections has been rising rapidly in the country since last month. Observers say the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant is likely causing the hike.

Concerns are rising about the strain on medical services. In New York City, more than 5,000 coronavirus patients were hospitalized as of Sunday.

Officials fear further surges in the case count as many people traveled and dined together during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The US government is urging people to get booster vaccine shots to increase their protection against the virus.

Israel to start reopening to foreigners even as omicron surges｜Arab News Japan [The News Motion, 5 Jan 2022]

By Kayla Roberts

JERUSALEM: Israel said it will admit foreigners with presumed COVID-19 immunity from countries deemed medium-risk next week, partially reversing a ban imposed in late November in response to the fast-spreading omicron variant.

The change suggests Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government sees waning value in sweeping travel curbs — which wrecked winter tourism — as domestic coronavirus cases surge.

The Health Ministry said that, as of Jan. 9, foreign travelers from 199 “orange” countries will be admitted if they can prove they are vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19.

Orange-listed countries include Australia, Italy and Ireland. The ministry recommended that South Africa, Nigeria, Spain, Portugal, France and Canada, among 16 countries listed as “red” or high COVID-19 risk, be changed to “orange.”

The announcement came even as Bennett predicted that new cases could increase tenfold within days. The rapid pace of infection has led to many Israelis waiting hours in lines for COVID-19 tests, although omicron has not brought corresponding rises in mortality.

Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said Israel would adjust its criteria for compulsory testing and focus primarily on people at high risk. Subsequently, more Israelis “will be required to exercise personal responsibility and perform tests at home,” he said in televised remarks.

The government’s strategy is focused on vaccinations, with a fourth dose — or second booster — offered to vulnerable cohorts. Within a day of making it available, 100,000 people received or made an appointment to get the second booster.

“I closed the skies five weeks ago when everything was good,” Bennett said in a televised address on Sunday, referring to Israel’s Nov. 25 ban on most travel to and from red-listed countries after omicron was first detected abroad.

“And, over the coming week, it would be reasonable for us to reopen anew.”

The US, Britain, the UAE, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mexico, Switzerland and Turkey remain on Israel’s red list, the Health Ministry said. Visitors from those countries require advance special permission from an Israeli committee to enter.

Israel has also scaled down precautionary self-isolation periods for people who have been exposed to COVID-19 carriers, concerned that mass quarantining could paralyze the economy.

Rio de Janeiro cancels carnival street parade over Omicron [Japan Today, 5 Jan 2022]

Authorities in Rio de Janeiro announced on Tuesday the cancelation of next month's carnival street celebrations due to an increase in COVID-19 cases brought on by the rapidly spreading Omicron variant.

It is the second year running that the coronavirus has forced the Rio street parade, which was due to take place from February 25 to March 1, to be called off.

"The street carnival in the form that took place in 2020, which did not happen in 2021, will not take place in 2022," Mayor Eduardo Paes said in a live broadcast on social media platforms.

The street parade by musical bands called "blocos" is different to the better known procession by samba schools that takes place in Rio's Sambadrome.

The Sambadrome can hold 70,000 people in a stadium that allows authorities to control those that enter.

Amongst the options available to them are proof of vaccination, a negative covid test and the wearing of masks for those in attendance.

"The street carnival, given its nature and its democratic aspect, makes any type of control impossible," said Paes.

In 2020, there were an estimated seven million revelers for the days-long street parades, according to the Riotour travel agency.

Although previous meetings between Rio authorities and the blocos failed to reach a compromise, new talks are planned for Friday where the musical groups association president Rita Fernandes told AFP they will make "a more decentralized proposal."

The arrival of the highly contagious Omicron variant, coupled with an increase in social gatherings over Christmas and the New Year, has seen covid cases soar in Rio.

New COVID cases jumped from 21 on December 14 to 458 just two weeks later.

So far, though, the rise in cases has not led to a significant increase in hospital admissions or deaths.

Four fifths of Rio's population have had at least two vaccine doses while almost a quarter have also been given a booster shot.

Some 67 percent of the South American country's 213 million population are vaccinated with two doses, while 12 percent have had the third.

Almost 620,000 people in Brazil have died of coronavirus, second only in the world to the United States.

Japan's Okinawa sees doubling of COVID-19 cases, considers emergency steps [Reuters, 5 Jan 2022]

TOKYO, Jan 5 (Reuters) - The southern Japanese island chain of Okinawa emerged on Wednesday as the epicentre of a new coronavirus surge, with cases more than doubling from the previous day and officials were considering imposing emergency curbs.

New infections in the prefecture jumped to 623 from 225 on Tuesday, the highest since August when Japan was in the midst of its fifth and biggest wave of COVID-19.

Governor Denny Tamaki on Tuesday told reporters the region had entered a sixth wave of infections and the highly transmissible Omicron variant was responsible.

Okinawa, 1,500 km (932 miles) southwest of Tokyo, hosts 70% of U.S. military facilities in Japan. Discoveries of coronavirus clusters and Omicron cases among service members have rankled relations with Japanese authorities there and residents, who number just under 1.5 million.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Japan was asking the U.S. military to make all efforts to rein in rising infections.

As of Tuesday, a total of 1,191 cases of the Omicron variant had been found in Japan, including 479 cases considered community transmissions, according to the health ministry.

"Omicron is rapidly increasing in some regions," Health Minister Shigeyuki Goto told reporters.

While Goto said it was too early to say if a sixth wave of infections had arrived, Japan's major metropolitan areas saw tallies rising to levels not seen for months.

Tokyo reported 390 cases while the western prefecture of Osaka said 244 had been found, the highest levels since September for both.

Nationwide, new cases exceeded 2,000 on Wednesday, according to a tally by national broadcaster NHK, the most since Sept. 26.

Okinawa health experts will meet later on Wednesday to determine whether to ask the central government to impose new restrictions, a prefectural official said.

It would be the first such declaration of what are known in Japan as quasi-emergency measures since Sept. 30, when all states of emergency and quasi-emergency that had been in effect for a good part of 2021 were lifted.

Tokyo officials may also ask for emergency measures to be reinstated in the capital, the Sankei newspaper said, citing unidentified sources.

The central government hopes to respond quickly to any requests for emergency steps, Matsuno told reporters. Measures would likely include limiting the opening hours of restaurants and bars.

Separately, a U.S. Marine Corps station in the prefecture of Yamaguchi, in western Japan, reported that 182 people on the base there had tested positive on Tuesday.

Rampant spread of omicron could foster more dangerous variants, WHO warns [The Japan Times, 5 Jan 2022]

Soaring omicron cases around the globe could increase the risk of a newer, more dangerous variant emerging, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned Tuesday.

While the COVID-19 variant is spreading like wildfire around the world, it appears to be far less severe than initially feared and has raised hopes that the pandemic could be overcome and life return more to normality.

But WHO Senior Emergency Officer Catherine Smallwood has sounded an ominous note of caution, noting that the soaring infection rates could have the opposite effect.

"The more omicron spreads, the more it transmits and the more it replicates, the more likely it is to throw out a new variant. Now, omicron is lethal, it can cause death … maybe a little bit less than delta, but who's to say what the next variant might throw out," Smallwood said in an interview.

Europe has registered more than 100 million COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, and more than five million new cases in the last week of 2021, "almost dwarfing what we have seen in the past," Smallwood said.

"We're in a very dangerous phase, we're seeing infection rates rise very significantly in Western Europe, and the full impact of that is not yet clear," she said.

Smallwood also noted that while "on an individual level there's probably a decreased risk of hospitalization" with the omicron variant compared to delta, overall, omicron could pose a greater threat because of the sheer number of cases.

"When you see the cases rise so significantly, that's likely to generate a lot more people with severe disease, ending up in hospital and possibly going on to die," she said.

The U.K. on Tuesday faced warnings of an impending hospital crisis due to staff shortages caused by a wave of omicron infections, as the country's daily COVID-19 caseload breached 200,000 for the first time.

Smallwood said she expected that scenario to play out in other European countries as well.
"Even in well-capacitated, sophisticated health systems there are real struggles that are happening at the moment, and it's likely that these will play out across the region as omicron drives cases upwards."