There’s no real sign of a let up in the number of cases and an increase is expected in countries where citizens ignored the warnings of medical experts against travel, partying with friends and family or congregating in large groups.
WHO
The head of the World Health Organization says it’s important to step up genomic sequencing worldwide to ensure that new variants of the coronavirus are detected as the pandemic enters its second year.
New variants detected in Britain and South Africa that appear to be more infectious have caused concern and triggered new travel restrictions this month.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at an online news conference Monday from Geneva that “there will be setbacks and new challenges in the year ahead – for example new variants of COVID-19 and helping people who are tired of the pandemic continue to combat it.”
He said that the WHO is working closely with scientists across the world to “better understand any and all changes to the virus” and their impact.
Tedros said he wanted to “underscore the importance of increasing genomic sequencing capacity worldwide” and of sharing information with the U.N. health agency and other countries. He said that “only if countries are looking and testing effectively will you be able to pick up variants and adjust strategies to cope.”
UNITED STATES
Holiday Travel
Nearly 1.3 million people went through US airports on Sunday, the highest level of air travel in more than nine months, despite fear that travel will lead to more cases of COVID-19.
One cannot be surprised at the increase of travel in the US when the unmasked president spends his holiday golfing in Florida, and the unmasked vice president attends a function at Mar-a-Largo in Florida, before flying to Vail for a ski vacation.
The Transportation Security Administration said it screened 1,284,599 on Sunday, the highest total since March 15. More than 10 million people have travelled by air since Dec. 18, including six days with at least 1 million people getting screened.
Figures on road trips aren’t available, but AAA predicted that about 85 million Americans would travel during the Christmas holiday season, most of them by car.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top expert on infectious disease, said that level of travel could lead to a further increase in COVID-19 cases. Fauci said crowded airports make it difficult to maintain social distance, and holiday gatherings combine people from different households.
New cases of COVID-19 have been surging for about two months. There have been more than 330,000 reported deaths from the virus.
Las Vegas
More than 1.8 million travellers passed through the Las Vegas airport in November, a slight drop from October and less than half the pre-pandemic traffic the airport saw a year earlier. McCarran International Airport reported Monday that number of passengers tallied in November 2020 was 57% lower than November 2019.
Air travel has been among the hospitality and visitor industries in Nevada that’s been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak. The passengers that did pass through McCarran last month were almost all domestic travellers. The number of international passengers at the airport has fallen 94% from 2019, down to just 19,000 travellers.
McCarran has recorded about 21 million passengers to date this year. That’s less than half the 47 million recorded by the same point in 2019.
More Las Vegas
Problems magnified by the pandemic, but not the virus itself, are being blamed for a rise in deaths in the Las Vegas area’s homeless population. Local public health officials and homeless advocates tell the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the number of fatalities on the street is up 16% compared to last year. Yet, the COVID-19 test positivity rate among homeless communities is about the same as the general population.
Clark County reports 186 homeless people died from Jan. 1 to Dec. 4. That amounts to a rate of 35 deaths for every 1,000, which is six more than in 2019.
According to public health experts, the spike in fatalities could be attributed to the pandemic exacerbating difficulties in getting health care and other services. People living on the streets likely don’t have the ability to do virtual appointments.
SPAIN
The Spanish health ministry said Monday the number of victims who have died of COVID-19 has reached 50,122. Spain has recorded almost 1.88 million cases of the new coronavirus among its population of 47 million.
Nationwide restrictions on movement and curfews in recent weeks have helped the country slow COVID-19’s spread. The country’s 14-day case rate per 100,000 inhabitants stands at 246, down from a peak last fall of 529, recorded on Nov. 9. The health ministry says that just over 21% of ICU beds for COVID-19 patients are occupied.
Spain began its national vaccination program on Sunday, at homes for the elderly.
THE NETHERLANDS
The Dutch public health service says it has confirmed 11 cases of the new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus that was first found in Britain, including five cases in a cluster linked to an elementary school in the port city of Rotterdam.
Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said in a letter to lawmakers Monday that authorities are further investigating the school cluster in an attempt to learn more about the spread of the new variant.
De Jonge says the research could help answer questions about whether the role of elementary school children in the spread of the new variant is different than in other variants of the virus. All schools in the Netherlands are closed until at least Jan. 15 as part of a tough five-week lockdown aimed at reigning in soaring infection rates.
De Jonge says a government advisory panel of health experts scheduled to meet Wednesday to take stock of the pandemic also will discuss the new variant.
SWEDEN
The Swedish government is proposing the adoption of a temporary COVID-19 pandemic law that would allow it to close shopping centres and shops and halt public transport and public activities, among other things, to curb the spread of the pandemic.
The plan was unveiled Monday by the Swedish Minister of Trade and Industry, Ibrahim Baylan, and Minister of Social Affairs Lena Hallengren who said the law would take effect on Jan. 10 pending approval from the Parliament.
The law is to apply until Sept. 21 and those breaking it would face a fine.
Sweden has so far adopted reasonably mild coronavirus restrictions without enforced lockdowns and relied mainly on citizens’ own social distancing and other measures to fight the pandemic.
Prime Minister Stefan Lofven’s government originally planned to introduce the law in the spring of 2021 but fast-tracked it to January as the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic has put a severe strain on Sweden’s health care system.
INDONESIA
Indonesia announced Monday that it will temporarily ban foreigners from entering the country for 14 days starting on Jan. 1 to fight the spread of the new, more infectious variant of COVID-19.
Foreigners that would arrive in Indonesia from Monday to Thursday will be allowed to enter by showing a negative result from a coronavirus test with 48 hours of their departure. They will do another test upon arrival at the airport in Indonesia. If the second test is negative, they will still have to complete a mandatory quarantine for five days and do another test after the quarantine.
“They will be allowed to continue the visit to Indonesia if the test shows negative result,” said Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi.
Indonesia reported 5,854 new COVID-19 on Monday and 215 more deaths in the last 24 hours, brining the country’s overall death toll to 21,452.
CHINA
A Chinese court on Monday sentenced a former lawyer who reported on the early stage of the coronavirus outbreak to four years in prison on charges of “picking fights and provoking trouble,” one of her lawyers said.
The Pudong New Area People’s Court in the financial hub of Shanghai gave the sentence to Zhang Zhan following accusations she spread false information, gave interviews to foreign media, disrupted public order and “maliciously manipulated” the outbreak.
Zhang, 37, travelled to Wuhan in February and posted on various social media platforms about the outbreak that is believed to have emerged in the central Chinese city late last year.
She was arrested in May amid tough nationwide measures aimed at curbing the outbreak and heavy censorship to deflect criticism of the government’s initial response. Zhang reportedly went on a prolonged hunger strike while in detention, prompting authorities to forcibly feed her, and is said to be in poor health.
RUSSIA
Moscow has started offering a domestically developed coronavirus vaccine to people older than 60 after Russia’s Health Ministry cleared it for use among the elderly.
Earlier this month, mass vaccination against COVID-19 started in Russia with the Sputnik V vaccine, which is still undergoing advanced tests among tens of thousands of people needed to ensure its safety and effectiveness. Front-line workers, such as doctors and teachers, were the first in line to get the shots, and until Saturday only those aged 18-60 were allowed to be vaccinated.
On Saturday, the Health Ministry cleared Sputnik V for use among those older than 60. In Moscow, the elderly can sign up for immunizations starting Monday.
Russia has been widely criticized for giving Sputnik V regulatory approval in August after it was tested only on a few dozen people
Russian authorities have reported more than 55,000 deaths. Russia has been swept by a rapid resurgence of the outbreak this fall, with confirmed infections and deaths significantly exceeding those reported in the spring.
JAPAN
Japan on Monday reported a first victim of the coronavirus from the Japanese parliament – Yuichiro Hata, who has served as transport minister under the leadership of a now-defunct opposition party.
Hata, 53, was pronounced dead at a Tokyo hospital Sunday when he arrived after developing a fever. His autopsy confirmed the COVID-19 was the direct cause of his death, said Tetsuro Fukuyama, secretary general of the constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, where Hata was a member of.
SOUTH KOREA
South Korea has confirmed its first cases of a more contagious variant of COVID-19 that was first identified in the United Kingdom.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Monday the cases have been confirmed in a family of three people who came to South Korea on Dec. 22.
They arrived a day before South Korea halted air travel from Britain until Dec. 31 to guard against the new version of the virus. The three people, who reside in the U.K., are under quarantine in South Korea.
South Korea on Monday registered 808 new coronavirus cases, raising its national caseload to 57,680 with 819 deaths. The government said Sunday it would wait another week before determining whether to enforce its toughest physical distancing rules in the greater Seoul area that officials worry would further hurt the economy.