Covid news live: Australia to offer jabs to children aged five to 11; US Omicron cases mostly mild, CDC chief says | World news

South Africa’s minister of health Dr Joe Phaahla and deputy minister of health Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo will convene a virtual media briefing on the unfolding Covid situation in the nation.

The briefing is set to begin shortly and will address government efforts in the fight against Covid-19 and the national vaccination rollout programme.

We will bring you all the relevant new lines as they come in.

India has just released their daily Covid numbers.

Another 8,503 new coronavirus cases were reported over the past 24 hours.

A further 624 deaths were also recorded, according to the latest ministry of health data.

Australia’s Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, announced earlier today the decision to approve vaccination for children aged five to 11 to receive the Pfizer Covid vaccine from 10 January.

The move comes after the federal government accepted a recommendation for its use from immunisation experts.

Watch the video detailing the announcement below.

Germany has just released some new Covid numbers.

The European nation reported another 61,288 new daily coronavirus cases for the past 24 hours and 484 deaths, the Robert Koch Institute reports.

Asian shares slipped and the US dollar held firm on Friday as traders edged away from riskier assets amid renewed concerns about Covid-19 and ahead of key US inflation data that could set direction on Federal Reserve rates, Reuters reports.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.4% and Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.5%.

Overnight the S&P 500 lost 0.72% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.71%. S&P 500 futures rose 0.14% in Asian hours.

Shares and risk-friendly currencies had performed well earlier in the week, with MSCI’s regional benchmark posting its best day in two months on Tuesday, helped by indications the Omicron strain of the new coronavirus might not be as economically disruptive as first feared.

“Then, as we got towards the end of the week the fact that Europe was much more clearly moving into a sort of lockdown light and cases are going up, and Covid-19 case numbers in the US are starting to ratchet up flipped things a little bit,” said Rob Carnell, head of research Asia Pacific at ING.

“Also there is a slight sense of ‘let’s not have too much risk on the table for the weekend’. Of course, there is CPI out in the US – but I think we’ve all woken up to the fact that there is inflation in the US now,” he added.

Speaking of the United States, here is a detailed state-by-state map showing the number of confirmed Covid-19 deaths per 100,000 Americans.

Map numbers shown below are from Johns Hopkins University.

Some disturbing news has just emerged from California in the United States.

The president of California’s medical board, which issues medical licenses and disciplines doctors, says a group of anti-vaccine activists stalked her at home and followed her to her office, the Associated Press reports.

Kristina Lawson, a former mayor of Walnut Creek who was appointed to the board by former Governor Jerry Brown, was reportedly confronted by four men in a dark parking garage in what she described as a terrifying experience.

Lawson tweeted:

On Monday, I was followed and confronted by a group that peddles medical disinformation, promotes fake Covid-19 treatments, and is under investigation by Congress for stealing millions of dollars from consumers. It was a terrifying experience.”

“They watched my daughter drive herself to school and watched me walk out of my house, get in my car, and take my two kids to school.”

The medical board president said she grew concerned on Monday after she noticed the people in a white SUV parked near her home and saw someone flying a drone over her house.

The white SUV then followed her to work and parked “head-to-head” with her car in a parking garage and when she left the office building and entered the parking garage later that evening, four men jumped out of the SUV with cameras and recording equipment and confronted her, Lawson alleged.

“Instead, they ambushed me in a dark parking garage when they suspected I would be alone,” she added.

Lawson said the people identified themselves as representing America’s Frontline Doctors, led by Simone Gold, a Beverly Hills doctor who was arrested during the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol. The group criticises the Covid-19 vaccine and has been widely discredited for spreading disinformation about the coronavirus and unproven treatments.

Lawson contacted Walnut Creek Police. “Like other Californians who believe in both science and fair play, I will not be intimidated,” she said.

Singapore has detected its first locally transmitted case of the Omicron variant in a member of staff at the city state’s airport, authorities said late on Thursday, warning that more Omicron cases are likely to be detected.

The 24-year-old Singaporean woman, who works in a service role in the airport, “may have interacted with transit passengers from Omicron-affected countries,” the health ministry said in a statement, Reuters reports.

She tested preliminarily positive for Omicron as a part of the routine testing for frontline workers, it said, noting she was fully vaccinated and asymptomatic.

A second Omicron case reported on Tuesday was a traveller from Germany. Both of individuals had received vaccine booster shots, the health ministry said.

The cases are currently pending further genome sequencing to confirm the variant. Singapore had previously detected three Omicron cases, all found in overseas travellers.

The health ministry said:

Given its high transmissibility and spread to many parts of the world, we should expect to find more Omicron cases at our borders and also within our community.”

Singapore has vaccinated 96% of its eligible population and authorities are urging the public to get booster shots amid concerns over the Omicron variant.

Some Covid stats from South Korea has just landed.

The south Asian country recorded 7,022 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours.

A further 53 deaths were also reported, taking the nationwide cumulative death toll to 4,130.

A total of 83.5 % of the population has received at least one Covid vaccination dose and 81 % are fully vaccinated.

Thailand has also reported another 4,193 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours.

A further 28 deaths were also reported, taking the nationwide cumulative death toll to 4,130.