Total Covid-19 cases
View charts and mapsConfirmed
76,033,488Deaths
1,676,082Australia’s biggest state isolated after outbreak
An outbreak in Australia’s most populous state has expanded to at least 68 cases over the weekend, prompting border closures.
The cluster in New South Wales is likely to have emerged from a passenger that arrived into Australia on December 1 from the US.
Two neighbouring states, Victoria and Queensland, have virtually closed their borders to NSW residents.
From Sunday, people who live in Greater Sydney and the Central Coast cannot enter Victoria. Police are preparing to set up checkpoints on the border and the state has asked for military assistance.
Anyone from this zone found trying to enter Victoria is subject to 14-day mandatory hotel quarantine and could face a penalty of at least A$1,652 (US$1,260) up to $9,913.
The NSW border closure is a reversal of fortune for Victoria, which found itself isolated after a massive outbreak earlier this year that resulted in the state accounting for 90 per cent of Australian coronavirus-related deaths.
“Just as when other states closed their borders to us, these decisions are not easy, but they are necessary,” said Victorian premier Daniel Andrews.
There have been no new locally transmitted cases reported in Victoria for 52 days.
Queensland recorded three cases on Saturday, with two imported and a third was a NSW resident who travelled to Queensland by air this week, tested positive, and has since returned to NSW.
Health officials in Queensland urged the state’s residents “intending travel to Sydney to reconsider their plans”.
US Congress reaches stimulus deal, says McConnell
The US Congress has reached a deal on a near-$900bn stimulus package, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said on Sunday.
Leaders of the House of Representatives and Senate have “finalised an agreement” on a new Covid-19 relief package, he told the upper house.
“We can finally report what our nation needed to hear — more help is on the way,” Mr McConnell said. “There is another major rescue package for the American people.”
He said workers at hard-hit small businesses would get a “second draw” at the Paycheck Protection Program, a loan scheme designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said a vote on the package is expected to take place on Sunday.
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Israel bans visitors over new strain
Israel on Sunday barred entry to all foreign citizens arriving from the UK, Denmark and South Africa, in an attempt to prevent the spread of new mutations of the coronavirus emerging in those countries.
The measures also order all Israelis returning from those three countries to enter isolation in state-run quarantine hotels, the prime minister's office said.
“We are doing everything to prevent the mutation from entering Israel,” said prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The health ministry will attempt to locate Israelis who have already returned from the three countries in the past two weeks and test them.
About 130 passengers on two flights from London that landed at Ben Gurion Airport Sunday afternoon were sent to quarantine hotels, the Times of Israel reported.
Passengers found out about the new restrictions only upon landing. About 30 passengers on an easyJet flight from London refused to go into quarantine, the paper said.
Police were called and the passengers were returned to the UK.
Separately, Mr Netanyahu received the first anti-coronavirus vaccination in Israel. “He is in excellent condition and has no symptoms or side effects,” said his doctor, Zvi Herman Berkowitz.
Saudi Arabia imposes 1-week ban on flights
Saudi Arabia has suspended all international passenger flights for a week over fears about the fast-spreading new variant of the coronavirus, official media said on Sunday.
The kingdom’s interior ministry says the ban could be extended.
Flights that have arrived would be allowed to leave, Saudi Press Agency reported.
The government ordered anyone who has returned from or passed through a European country over the past three months to get tested for Covid-19 immediately.
The ministry added that the travel suspension would not apply to cargo aircraft.
UK urges drivers to stay away from Kent ports
Lorries back up on the M20 motorway near Folkestone, Kent
The UK government has called on Britons to stay away from ports in Kent, in England’s south-east, after the French government on Sunday joined several other EU countries in banning people and goods from the UK for 48 hours.
“Following the French government's announcement it will not accept any passengers arriving from the UK for the next 48 hours, we’re asking the public and particularly hauliers not to travel to Kent ports or other routes to France,” UK transport secretary Grant Shapps wrote on Twitter.
“My department is urgently working with Highways England and Kent Council on contingency measures to minimise traffic disruption in the area.”
Canada cases top 500,000 since pandemic began
Canada’s total Covid-19 caseload passed 500,000 over the weekend, according to official data.
There are 75,695 active cases across the country, and 14,040 deaths reported, according to Health Canada.
Canada has averaged 6,653 new cases in the week to December 17.
“Covid-19 is spreading among people of all ages, with high infection rates across all age groups,” said Theresa Tam, the country’s chief medical officer.
“However, nationally, infection rates remain highest among those aged 80 years and older,” she added.
Dr Tam said a forecasting model developed at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver indicates Canada will record more than 8,000 cases daily by the beginning of January 2021.
UCLA team links Covid-19 and stroke risk
US scientists believe they have discovered why coronavirus increases the risk of a stroke, and can cause strokes in people who had no known risk factors.
The connection between the Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, and strokes had been observed but was previously unknown.
Researchers used a silicone model to mimic intracranial atherosclerosis, a condition in which arteries become clogged with a sticky substance called plaque, limiting blood flow to the brain and increasing the risk of a stroke.
They showed that the higher pressure of the blood flow increases the production of a molecule called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, or ACE2, which the coronavirus uses to enter cells on the surface of blood vessels.
“The underlying mechanisms ... are critical to understanding the association of Sars-CoV-2 infection with cerebrovascular events,” the researchers, led by Naomi Kaneko and Sandro Satto of the School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, wrote in the medical journal Stroke.
China to prioritise food and logistics workers
China will prioritise high-risk workers in transport and logistics, not just healthcare workers, in its coronavirus vaccination programme, officials said at the weekend.
Cui Gang, head of the National Health Commission’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said port and airport workers, as well as people employed in cold-storage logistics, would be on the front line for jabs.
Fresh food market and public transit employees would also be a priority, he added.
Mr Cui said it was important to protect people against external threats as well as domestic transmission of the virus.
“Everyone has also noticed that several [outbreaks] might be related to imported cold chain logistics,” he said, referring to China’s disputed claims that recent imports of frozen food have been contaminated with the coronavirus.
Jiang Honghua makes dishes at her food stall in Wuhan as life in the Chinese city, once the centre of the coronavirus pandemic, has returned to normal
China has blamed Brazilian pork, Russian squid, Argentine beef and US chicken, among other products, for bringing in the virus but the World Health Organization maintains such contamination is unlikely.
Mr Cui said lower-priority workers should not worry about a delay in their vaccination. “We still have many effective prevention and control methods, such as personal protective equipment, wearing masks in public places, social distancing and frequent hand washing.”
Zeng Yixin, the head of the Vaccine Research and Development Team of the Joint Prevention and Joint Control Mechanism of the State Council and the Deputy Director of the National Health Commission, said it remained unclear how long the vaccine’s protection would last.
“It must be emphasised that the virus was discovered less than one year ago, so it is too early to say for how long the vaccine can protect,” he said. “We need to follow up and research continuously.”
South African variant ‘similar to new UK mutation’
South African scientists said they are working with the World Health Organization to investigate a new variant of the virus that causes Covid-19 that is sweeping the country.
The 501.V2 variant was identified by a genomics team led by the Kwazulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform, health minister Zweli Mkhize said at the weekend.
It is believed to be the same as or a similar variant to the mutated virus found in parts of England in recent weeks. Nine cases of the new strain have been reported in Denmark, and one each in the Netherlands and Australia, according to the WHO.
The South African platform, known as KRISP, has sequenced hundreds of samples from across the country since the beginning of the pandemic in March, Dr Mkhize said.
“In addition, clinicians have been providing anecdotal evidence of a shift in the clinical epidemiological picture — in particular noting that they are seeing a larger proportion of younger patients with no co-morbidities presenting with critical illness,” he said.
Dr Mkhize said the evidence suggested that South Africa’s current second wave is being driven by this new variant.
South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases confirmed 10,939 more cases on Saturday, bringing the national total to 912,477 and 254 new fatalities. The official death toll stands at 24,539.
A nurse obtains a throat swab for a Covid-19 test in Johannesburg
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