Covid: Glimmer of hope on Omicron and millions facing travel disruptionon December 24, 2021 at 6:01 pm

Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Friday evening. We’ll have another update for you tomorrow.

A “glimmer of Christmas hope” has been offered in new data that suggests the Omicron variant is less likely to result in serious illness than Delta, a health chief has said. However, Dr Jenny Harries, head of the UK Health Security Agency, said it was too early to retract her statement that the variant was the most serious threat the UK had faced during the pandemic. A further 122,186 cases were reported in the UK on Friday – another record – while the Office for National Statistics estimates 1.74 million people in the UK had coronavirus on 19 December, up by more than 368,000 on the figure three days earlier.

Immigration rules are to be eased for overseas care workers, in a bid to help ease staffing pressures in the sector. Social care workers, care assistants and home care workers are to become eligible for a health and care visa for a 12-month period. It comes after the Migration Advisory Committee this month said burnout from the pandemic, and the requirement for care home workers to be fully vaccinated, risked increasing an existing shortage.

Millions of people are facing travel disruption and increased Covid restrictions over Christmas, as the Omicron variant surges around much of the world. Flights are being cancelled and safety curbs tightened in many countries, with Italy, Spain and Greece all making face masks compulsory outdoors again. Catalonia, in northern Spain, has imposed an overnight curfew, and the Netherlands is in a strict lockdown. Despite early findings that Omicron is milder than other variants, scientists are concerned by the number of cases.

The US is to lift travel restrictions it imposed on eight southern African nations following the emergence of the Omicron variant. The measure – which had been imposed on South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini and Malawi – will be lifted by New Year’s Eve, the White House said. The restriction is no longer deemed necessary because of the extent of community transmission of the variant within the US. Omicron now makes up most of all new US cases.

The vaccination of seven-year-old twins in Scotland who have been shielding for nearly two years has been described by their mother as a “dream come true”. Orin and Olivia Arthur, from the Highlands, have Pompe disease, which affects organs such as the heart and lungs. They have been shielding at their home in Tain, Easter Ross, for 22 months along with their parents Lyndsay and Stephen Arthur. Earlier this week, the UK government said vulnerable primary school children aged five to 11 should be offered a low-dose Covid vaccine. The Arthurs believe the twins are the first under-12s in Scotland – and possibly the UK – to have the vaccine.

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