December 28 coronavirus news

As the US prepares to grapple with potential holiday Covid-19 surges, hospitals across the country have reported more than 100,000 patients for the 26th day in a row.

December has been a devastating month for coronavirus spread in the country. More than 63,000 Americans have died so far this month -- the most since the pandemic began -- bringing the total to more than 333,000 people lost to the virus in the US, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. With a total of 19.1 million people infected, there are now 118,720 people currently hospitalized, the Covid Tracking project reported.

One hospital in Southern California is facing the possibility of rationing the limited number of ICU beds and treatment equipment due to the surge of cases, meaning health care providers may have to make decisions of who gets treatment and who does not, infectious disease specialist Dr. Kimberly Shriner told CNN on Sunday.

Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena is preparing for the "ultimate triage" if cases continue to climb in the coming weeks, Shriner said.

“We have a limited number of ventilators, we have a limited number of ICU beds,” Shriner explained, adding that the hospital has nurses who normally take care of one or two patients now taking care of three or four.

And with waves of holiday travel, health experts predict cases will only grow. More than 1.1 million people were screened at airports on Saturday, according to the TSA. More than 616,000 were screened on Christmas Day alone, and hundreds of thousands more traveled in the days leading up to the holiday.

Dr. Anthony Fauci described the potential impacts of the holiday season as a "surge upon a surge."

Read the full story here.

A number of British tourists staying at the Swiss ski resort of Verbier are reported to have "fled clandestinely under cover of night" on Saturday, after a quarantine period was imposed on all travelers from the United Kingdom, a local official told CNN on Monday.

The quarantine requirement was introduced amid concerns over a new, more contagious, coronavirus variant.

"Some British tourists left immediately, while others decided to stay a little longer. Some of them fled clandestinely during the night," Jean-Marc Sandoz, spokesman for the town of Bagnes, some 20 minutes away from Verbier, told CNN.

"They left progressively, as soon as they found a way back to their homes," he added, noting that the exact number of tourists who left the resort has not been confirmed.

On 21 December, the Swiss Federal Council imposed an entry ban and retroactive quarantine period on all travelers from the UK and South Africa, to prevent the spread of two newly-detected variants of coronavirus.

All those who have entered Switzerland from the two countries since 14 December are required to quarantine for 10 days.

According to Sandoz, 370 holidaymakers from the UK were recorded as being required to comply with the 10-day quarantine order.

"Some of them had to leave for France, because planes for the UK are suspended in Switzerland," Sandoz said.

"You can't blame them. In most cases the quarantine was unbearable. Imagine staying with four people in a hotel room of 20 square metres, and they had to pay for staying at a Swiss ski resort," he added.

According to Head of the Verbier Tourism Office, Simon Wiget, British tourists usually make up 21% of holidaymakers staying at the resort.

Life wasn't easy for Patricia, even before the pandemic hit.

She struggled with mental health issues after fleeing an abusive relationship, moving herself and her children into an east London flat with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.

For the past few years, Patricia had held down a job as a barista, but she was furloughed after the Covid-19 crisis exploded and the United Kingdom went into lockdown. As the money got tighter, she found herself resorting to a food bank to help feed her family.

Like many others in the east London borough of Tower Hamlets -- one of the most deprived areas in the British capital -- Patricia turned to the First Love Foundation.

The charity -- which gives out food to those in need, as well as providing other services including housing and legal assistance -- said it saw a 925% surge in demand during the early stages of the pandemic.

An ongoing struggle: The pandemic has only widened the ever-growing divide between the haves and have-nots.

In July, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the virus had "laid bare" risks and inequalities known for decades, and warned that "entire regions that were making progress on eradicating poverty and narrowing inequality have been set back years, in a matter of months."

But even in Europe -- home to some of the richest countries and most generous social safety nets -- concerns around hunger and deprivation existed long before the Covid-19 crisis.

In 2019, a report by Eurostat estimated that there were 92.4 million people in the EU who were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, equivalent to 21.1 % of the total population.

Another Eurostat report from 2018 revealed that 33.4 million Europeans were unable to afford a meal with meat, fish, or a vegetarian equivalent every second day -- highlighting the sheer scale of the problem across Europe.

And when the pandemic hit, things got even worse.

Read the full story here:

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Differences in how individual US states have responded to coronavirus are a "major weakness" in the US' handling of the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci has said.

"The states are very often given a considerable amount of leeway in doing things the way they want to do it, as opposed to in response to federal mandates, which are relatively rarely given," the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told BBC Radio 4 in a segment that aired Monday.

"Although that works well for certain things, when you’re dealing with a pandemic, which doesn’t know the difference between the border of New York and New Jersey, or Florida and Georgia, or Texas and Oklahoma ... you have to have a degree of consistency in your response," he said, referencing shutdowns and reopening guidelines.

"What we’ve had was a considerable disparity with states doing things differently in a non-consistent way. There have been a lot of factors that have led to the fact that, unfortunately for us, the United States has been the hardest hit country in the world, but I believe that disparity among how states do things has been a major weakness in our response," he said.

There have been at least 19.1 million cases of coronavirus in the US, and at least 333,129 Americans have been lost to the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases.

"Politicization" of public health measures slowed response: Fauci also pointed to divisive politics as a factor in the US' response to the pandemic.

"Unfortunately, this year, I think it's no secret to anyone following what’s going on that there is a considerable degree of divisiveness in this country," he said, explaining that this had complicated what "at another time, and under different circumstances" would be seen as simple public health matters.

"But now what we see is somewhat of a politicization, where ... things like the wearing of masks become a political statement, where ... keeping away from crowds becomes a political statement, that has made it very problematic as we’ve dealt with this unprecedented and historic outbreak," he said.

Fauci said it is vital to continue with public health measures until coronavirus vaccinations are prevalent throughout the world -- not just in developed nations.

"Until we get that veil of protection, then we are constantly going to be challenged," he said.

The London Ambulance Service (LAS) says it has received as many emergency calls in recent weeks as it did during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

It says it has had to rely on the support of extra staff members and volunteers to ease pressure on the service.

An LAS spokesman said demand for the service has risen "sharply" in recent weeks, with up to 8,000 calls a day to the 999 emergency number, compared to 5,500 on a typical busy day.

UK variant: The United Kingdom has identified a new, more contagious coronavirus variant, linked to a recent surge in cases in England. Dozens of countries have banned travel from the UK in an attempt to contain it.

More than 2.29 million cases of coronavirus have been reported in the United Kingdom since the beginning of the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, and more than 70,000 people have died.

"Our colleagues in emergency departments are also under pressure receiving our patients as quickly as they can. We are working urgently with NHS partners to reduce any delays," the LAS spokesman added.

According to data from the service, the LAS took 7,918 calls on December 26 this year, in comparison to 5,217 the year before.

"One of our busiest ever days -- 16 March 2020 -- as the first wave of the pandemic peaked, was only marginally busier," an LAS spokesperson told CNN Monday.

Authorities shut down an illegal bar and broke up a warehouse party in Newark, New Jersey where more than 200 people were gathered in the middle of the current Covid-19 pandemic.

Newark Department of Public Safety maintain that patrons of the event were eating, drinking alcohol and participating in illegal gambling at a warehouse located at 6 Libella Court early Sunday morning.

Newark Public Safety Director Anthony F. Ambrose announced the arrest of two women working behind the illegal bar for being unable to produce the appropriate paperwork proving they held a license to sell alcohol, according to a statement released on Sunday.

Denisse Tinizaray, 26, and Katherine Tinizaray, 28, both of Newark, were arrested on Sunday and each face charges of maintaining an illegal alcohol establishment, illegal possession of alcohol and illegal sale of alcohol.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced new restrictions earlier this month limiting outdoor gatherings to no more than 25 individuals, down from the previous 150-person limit. In August, Murphy announced a reduction to indoor gatherings limiting establishments to 25% capacity with a maximum number of 25 people, due to the “upward climb” in the Covid-19 transmission rate.

More than 30,000 people in Germany have died from symptoms related to the novel coronavirus, according to official data released Monday.

The daily tally from Germany‘s center for disease control, the Robert Koch Institute, showed an additional 348 deaths in a span of 24 hours, bringing the total to 30,126. 

The country also recorded 10,976 new infections in the same timeframe.

Germany currently has hard lockdown measures in place in an effort to reign in a surge of new coronavirus infections. Like other European Union nations, the country began administering the recently approved Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Sunday.

Oman will reopen its borders on Tuesday after closing them for a week amid concerns over the new, more contagious variant of coronavirus first detected by the United Kingdom, state media reported Sunday.

The Supreme Committee, which oversees the highest decision making in Oman, released a statement on Sunday announcing that borders will reopen at midnight and travelers entering the country will be required to quarantine for seven days.

Every traveler must have a negative PCR test before boarding for travel and expect to be tested again on arrival, the statement said. 

Passengers entering the sultanate are also required to register on Oman's Covid-19 tracking app and wear a tracking bracelet during the duration of their quarantine.  

Vaccine drive: The decision to lift the travel ban comes on the same day Oman launched its vaccination campaign. 

Health Minister Dr. Ahmed Mohammed al-Saidi was the first person to be inoculated against Covid-19, state media reported. 

The first batch of vaccines delivered on Thursday contained 15,600 doses and 28,000 are expected to arrive in early January, the health minister said, according to state media. 

South Korea announced that it has detected the new, more contagious Covid-19 variant -- first identified in England -- in three visitors traveling from London, the Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on Monday.

The three visitors were from the same family who arrived from London on December 22, the agency said. They tested positive for Covid-19 when entering South Korea and have since been placed under quarantine.

South Korea on Monday extended a ban on flights from the UK until January 7.

New cases: On Sunday, South Korea reported 808 new Covid-19 cases, of which 787 were locally transmitted, the agency added. 

This brings the total number of infections across the country to 57,680, while the death toll currently stands at 819.