Covid live: Germany warned of ‘really terrible Christmas’ without new measures; Russia sets new deaths record

• The head of Germany’s disease control agency has warned that the country faces a “really terrible Christmas” unless steps are taken to counter the sharp rise in coronavirus infections.
• The Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s disease control agency, said on Thursday that 65,371 newly confirmed cases had been reported in a single day, continuing the upward trend that experts have been warning about for weeks. It is another new daily record.
• “We are currently heading toward a serious emergency,” the agency’s director, Lothar Wieler, said. “We are going to have a really terrible Christmas if we don’t take countermeasures now.”
• Russia has had a remarkably consistent set of official Covid death figures. Since first rising above 1,000 on 20 October, they have gradually crept up to hover around the 1,200 mark. The country today has set a new highest official record for deaths at 1,251. There were 37,374 nationwide infections recorded. This is down slightly from the peak daily caseload of 41,335 recorded on 6 November.
• Virologists in the Netherlands have proposed extending holidays over Christmas to slow a surge in Covid-19 cases among children that has forced half of schools nationwide to send classes home.
• Sweden is introducing a digital Covid-19 vaccination certificate for public gatherings and events with more than 100 people indoors, authorities said Wednesday.
• Children aged 12 and over who have had a Covid-19 infection should not get a vaccine until 12 weeks later, UK officials have said.
• A rise in coronavirus cases in the UK is likely in the new year when schools return after the festive break, an expert has warned, adding that he is “cautiously optimistic” for Christmas. Prof Tim Spector, lead scientist on the Zoe Covid Study app, has reiterated his belief that people could have to deal with Covid-19 for the next five years and insisted it is important to look “much further ahead and not just to save Christmas”.
• Scientists studying an offshoot of the Covid Delta variant on the rise in England and known as AY.4.2, found it is less likely to cause symptoms than the dominant Delta variant, AY.4.
• A steep rise in Covid-19 cases in Europe should serve as a warning that the US could also see significant increases in coronavirus cases this winter, particularly in the nation’s colder regions, scientists say. “I do expect to see cases increasing – we’ve started to see this in the last week or so,” said Dr David Dowdy, an associate professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University.
• South Korea has reported its biggest daily jump in coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic. The 3,292 new cases reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Thursday marked the second straight day of over 3,000 cases
• China has reported a third Covid-19 case among foreign athletes at preparatory events ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. A foreign athlete participating in the Luge World Cup in Beijing was confirmed on Tuesday as being an asymptomatic case after a routine Covid test.
• The detention of Zhang Zhan, the Chinese journalist jailed after reporting on the Covid pandemic in Wuhan, is intended as a “warning to others”, her former lawyer has said, as calls grow for her emergency release on medical grounds.
• Indigenous health workers in the Northern Territory town of Katherine in Australia say they fear for vulnerable community members – including many living on the streets or in severely overcrowded homes – as authorities scramble to contain a Covid outbreak.

Andrew Sparrow has our UK politics live blog. Lucy Campbell will be here shortly to carry on bringing you the latest coronavirus developments from the UK and around the world. I will be back tomorrow, but right now I am off to go and host the comments on our regular Thursday quiz. I will maybe see you there.

Virologists in the Netherlands have proposed extending holidays over Christmas to slow a surge in Covid-19 cases among children that has forced half of schools nationwide to send classes home.

The National Institute for Health (RIVM) this week reported a record of over 110,000 weekly cases through 16 November, an increase of 44% from the week before. The strongest rise was among children aged between four and 12.

Anthony Deutsch and Bart Meijer report for Reuters that infections among children of primary school age, five to nine, jumped almost 85% and rose 76% among children aged 10-14.

“Keeping primary schools closed for longer is an effective way to keep the virus under control,” the immunologist Ger Rijkers told the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper. “Children are virus factories and infect adults as well as each other.”

Not all experts say closing schools is the best option, but Marion Koopmans, a virologist and member of the country’s leading Covid-19 advisory board, told the paper “we need to consider other measures” if rates don’t fall.

The latest wave began after the government ended social distancing and other measures in September, a decision that has since been reversed.

Caretaker prime minister Mark Rutte’s proposal to exclude the non-vaccinated from a pass for indoor events has faced opposition in parliament. Rutte’s government has reintroduced protective mask-wearing in stores and reimposed a partial lockdown.

Here’s the chart showing the latest Covid incidence rates across Europe. Germany has again set a daily record for new cases, as part of wave of infection that appears to be gradually moving westwards across the continent. [See 9.16am]

A rise in coronavirus cases in the UK is likely in the new year when schools return after the festive break, an expert has warned, adding that he is “cautiously optimistic” for Christmas.

It is clear that children and school holidays play “a key role in the waves of infection”, said Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London.

PA Media report that the lead scientist on the Zoe Covid Study app reiterated his belief that people could have to deal with Covid-19 for the next five years and insisted it is important to look “much further ahead and not just to save Christmas”.

He stressed the importance of “healthy behaviours such as working more from home when possible and self-isolation with all symptoms”, as well as wearing face coverings in high-risk areas.

But Prof Spector said the most important thing is to get fully vaccinated, a term he said must be redefined to having three doses “to protect us all from Delta and the inevitable new variants of Covid yet to come”.

Andrew Sparrow has launched our UK politics live blog. He will be no doubt absorbed with rail announcements and the ongoing Tory sleaze allegations, so I will be continuing here with UK Covid lines, as well as the latest coronavirus news from around the world.

The head of Germany’s disease control agency has warned that the country faces a “really terrible Christmas” unless steps are taken to counter the sharp rise in coronavirus infections.

German lawmakers are debating measures today that would replace the nationwide epidemic rules, which will expire at the end of the month.

The Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s disease control agency, said on Thursday that 65,371 newly confirmed cases had been reported in a single day, continuing the upward trend that experts have been warning about for weeks. It is another new daily record.

“We are currently heading toward a serious emergency,” the agency’s director, Lothar Wieler, said. “We are going to have a really terrible Christmas if we don’t take countermeasures now.”

Wieler said Germany needs to increase its vaccination rates to significantly above 75%, from 67.7% at present. Some regions in Germany have vaccination rates as low as 57.6%.

He warned that hospitals across Germany were struggling to find beds for Covid-19 patients and those with other illnesses.

Associated Press reports that he also called for the closure of clubs and bars, an end to large-scale events and access to many parts of public life to be limited to those with vaccine or recovery certificates.

Russia has had a remarkably consistent set of official Covid death figures. Since first rising above 1,000 on 20 October, they have gradually crept up to hover around the 1,200 mark. The country today has set a new highest official record for deaths at 1,251.

There were 37,374 nationwide infections recorded. This is down slightly from the peak daily caseload of 41,335 recorded on 6 November. At the beginning of the month there was a mandated paid week’s holiday for non-essential workers in Russia, which authorities hoped would break the transmission chain.

Children aged 12 and over who have had a Covid-19 infection should not get a vaccine until 12 weeks later, UK officials have said.

Deferring could help to reduce even further the “very, very small” risk of heart inflammation after vaccination, experts from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said.

Current case rates of myocarditis after vaccination among under-18s are suspected to be around nine per million vaccinations, and cases have been “relatively mild”, officials said.

The advice for older people and for people at high risk from Covid-19 – including those aged 12 and over – is that they should wait four weeks between Covid infection and having a dose of vaccine. But officials said this should be extended to 12 weeks in lower-risk children between 12 and 17.

Read more here: UK under-18s with Covid advised to wait 12 weeks for vaccine dose

HSBC CEO Noel Quinn has made an intervention in the debate about Hong Kong’s Covid measures by suggesting that he backs them.

In an interview with Bloomberg, bank chief Quinn said “It’s important for Hong Kong to establish what they need to establish with China on reopening. I don’t want to do anything that may jeopardise that. I would love to get back to Hong Kong as soon as I can and when the authorities feel it’s right for me to go back, I will.”

The mood isn’t shared among the business community, amid accusations that the strict approach to Covid from the city is hampering its position as an international business hub. Earlier this week delivery and logistics company FedEx said it was closing its Hong Kong operations in part because of the long quarantine periods needed for staff arriving into the city from abroad.

China has reported a third Covid-19 case among foreign athletes at preparatory events ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. A foreign athlete participating in the Luge World Cup in Beijing was confirmed on Tuesday as being an asymptomatic case after a routine Covid test.

The athlete has been transferred to an isolation facility for observation, state media reported, quoting Zhao Weidong, an official of the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.

The Luge World Cup is serving as a test event for the 4 February-20 February Beijing Winter Olympics. The Winter Paralympics follow in March.

Reuters remind us that all participants at the Games will be tested daily and spectators from abroad are not being allowed in. Athletes and other Games personnel will also be isolated in “closed loop” bubbles

Hello, it is Martin Belam here in London, taking over from Samantha Lock in Sydney. Here are the most recent Covid numbers in the UK. The seven-day cumulative total of cases according to the UK government’s own dashboard is 272,862. That is 15.1% higher than a week ago. There were 1,022 deaths in the last seven days, which is down 11.7% on the week before, and hospitalisations are down 3.8% on a week ago.

South Korea has reported its biggest daily jump in coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic.

The 3,292 new cases reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Thursday marked the second straight day of over 3,000 cases and brought the national caseload to 406,065.

The agency said 29 people with the virus died in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 3,187, while 506 others were in serious or critical condition.

The jump comes as hundreds of thousands of masked students flocked to schools on Thursday for the country’s highly competitive college entrance exam, AP reports.

Hi it’s Samantha Lock back again to bring you all the latest Covid headlines.

Sweden is introducing a digital Covid-19 vaccination certificate for public gatherings and events with more than 100 people indoors, authorities said Wednesday.

Health Minister Lena Hallengren said the country expected to see a rise in cases during the winter and was “not isolated from the rest of the world”.

The vaccination pass will be required for those over the age of either 16 or 18 – the government has yet to decide – at events like concerts, theatres and sporting events, but not at restaurants and bars.

Scientists studying an offshoot of the Covid Delta variant on the rise in England and known as AY.4.2, found it is less likely to cause symptoms than the dominant Delta variant, AY.4.

Here’s a quick summary of the latest headlines:

• The US is set to boost vaccine manufacturing and produce at least a billion doses a year. The Biden administration is planning to dedicate billions of dollars to build up vaccine manufacturing in the US to produce at least a billion doses each year, in an effort to shore up global Covid-19 supply for poorer countries while also pre-empting future pandemics.
• The Australian state of Victoria is set to ditch restrictions for fully vaccinated people from midnight on Thursday.
• The Covid Delta variant offshoot is ‘less likely’ to cause symptoms, researchers have revealed – although experts say the finding requires further scrutiny.
• Europe is the only region with increasing Covid deaths, the World Health Organization reports. Covid deaths rose 5% in the last week as deaths in all regions other than Europe remained stable or declined, and totalled 50,000 worldwide last week. Of the 3.3 million new infections reported, 2.1 million came from Europe.
• Spain has approved the use of a Covid-19 booster shot for people between 60-69 years old and for health workers, as part of an effort to combat an uptick in infections.
• The Czech Republic and Slovakia both reported record daily new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, a day before the two European Union countries plan to approve new restrictions for unvaccinated people in response to rising infections.
• A fourth Covid wave is hitting Germany with ‘full force’, Merkel says. Germany reported 52,826 new infections on Wednesday – up by a third from a week ago and another daily record, while 294 people died.
• Belgium tightened its coronavirus restrictions, mandating wider use of masks in indoor settings and enforcing work from home, as cases rose in the country’s fourth Covid wave. The country has one of the highest cases per capita rates in the EU.
• The UK reported another 38,263 Covid infections and a further 201 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.
• Mandatory vaccine passports are set to be introduced in Northern Ireland.
• Covid deaths have decreased 17% in the Americas over the past week, but the most populous countries like the US, Brazil and Colombia are seeing a levelling of new infections after weeks of declining trends, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday.
• Hungary reported 10,265 new Covid-19 infections, its highest daily tally since the end of March.