Beijing, capital city of China, has reported its first Omicron case, as informed by local media on Saturday. This is really happening there, despite the bubble and the moat authorities had put surrounding the city. Beijing Olympic Winter Games are just three weeks ahead, for that health authorities had been implementing a series of extreme measures to curb the spread of Covid in the hope to contain the virus from reaching the capital city.

Quebec has announced plans to impose a “health tax” on residents who refuse to get the Covid vaccine for non-medical reasons. This move comes amid a new wave of infections fuelled by Omicron, overwhelming the province’s health system.  Premier Francois Legault announced the new “contribution” on Tuesday 11th of January and it will be charged to all adults who do not want to get vaccinated. He said those who refuse to get the shot, bring a financial burden to hospital staff and Quebecers.

The US Food and Drug Administration Acting Commissioner Dr Janet Woodcock said on Tuesday the situation right now is that most people are going to get Covid, so the focus must be on making sure hospitals and essential services function.  

Data from US Department of Health and Human Services reveals that over 145,000 people are currently hospitalised in the United States because of Covid, making it a new record high, surpassing the previous peak from January 2021. Currently, 24,000 intensive care unit beds are in use for Covid-19 patients. About twice than a couple of weeks ago. Over the summer, during the Delta surge, hospitalisations peaked at about 104,000. But not only for adults have increased, also pediatric hospitalisations have far exceeded previous peaks, with nearly 5,000 children in hospital with confirmed or suspected Covid.

The forecast is that more than half of Europeans in the next six to eight weeks could be infected with Omicron. Dr Hans Kluge, the World Health Organisation regional director for Europe, told a virtual news conference that Europe and Central Asia are still under intense pressure from Covid in 2022. He also urged nations to reinforce the use of masks to prevent more cases, as the Omicron variant is highly contagious.

Five million more are into lockdown in Anyang, China, as the Winter Olympics gets closer. China continues to battle outbrakes across several provinces, confining millions of people, forcing them to be at home for later testing. The country’s national health commission reported 110 new locally transmitted instances, including 87 in Henan province, 13 in Shaanxi, and 10 in Tianjin. The number of cases in Henan, some Omicron, led to the confinement of five million residents in the city of Anyang, prompting the lockdown on Monday evening.

Winter Olympics are just a few weeks ahead, and China is doing whatever it takes to control and battle the Omicron variant outbreak in some of its cities. And it seems to take any measure to avoid the virus to get to Beijing, the capital, by the time the event starts. Health authorities have reported several cases of Omicron in recent days, shutting entire cities down such as Yuzhou, Tianjin, and Xi’an. On Monday, authorities recorded 97 new cases across several cities. At least 30 in Henan province, while 21 in Tianjin, including 15 children. This is the “first real battle against Omicron”, as state media have described the outbreak.

This Sunday 9th of January, authorities in Tianjin, a major Chinese port city near Beijing, launched a mass-testing programme to its 14 million residents after 20 children and adults tested positive for Covid, including at least two with Omicron.  

More than 150,000 people have died in the UK from Covid since the pandemic started, as revealed by government figures, making the country part of seven in the world to have passed this figure along with the United States, Brazil, India, Russia, Mexico, and Peru.

The World Health Organisation has warned against calling the Omicron variant as mild as it is killing people.  Evidence shows that Omicron is less likely to make patients seriously ill compared with previous variants, but it doesn’t mean a person cannot die of it.  The record numbers, the tsunami of cases, are leaving health systems under strain, the WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated. Last week, global caseload rose by 71%, and in the Americas by 100%. The unvaccinated account for 90% of serious cases.