Today’s coronavirus news: Ontario reporting 1,232 people hospitalized, 248 in the ICU; Canadian army deployed to Quebec
The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Monday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
5:07 p.m.: Dr. Anthony Fauci said the new year is bringing bad news as the highly transmissible omicron variant powers a vertical spike" in COVID-19 cases.
But even as omicron drives the worst caseloads of the entire pandemic, Fauci believes the wave could peak quickly.
Cases are not going up gradually, they are going straight up," Fauci told WPIX TV on Monday. What we are hoping is you reach a peak and the cases come down rather quickly."
The meteoric rise and fall in omicron cases is what doctors experienced in South Africa, where the new strain was first identified in late November.
Despite being much more contagious, omicron appears to cause less serious disease for the vaccinated than previous strains of COVID-19. And those who survive it will have some refreshed protection from other forms of the virus that are circulating.
That's a great sign for eventually getting the pandemic under control, but first, the U.S. will have to endure a rough few weeks or more.
The promising news is we have the tools to get out of it sooner than later," said Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical adviser to the president.
Following howls of protest by medical personnel, Fauci defended the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recently issued guidance allowing those who test positive for COVID-19 but who are asymptomatic to return to work after isolating for five days, instead of the previous 10 days.
Along with evolving clinical science about how long COVID-19 patients stay contagious, he cited the need to avoid a collapse of essential services if millions of workers are sidelined.
You got to make sure that society remains functional," he said. You try to strike a balance."
Fauci said he remained concerned about how the tens of millions of unvaccinated Americans will cope with omicron.
But he admitted being hopeful that the protection from widespread infection combined with the relatively large share of the population that is vaccinated and boosted will allow the country to finally turn the corner in the seemingly never-ending fight to end the pandemic.
You would hope there would be enough background protection in the population to prevent these massive outbreaks," he said.
4:51 p.m.: The federal government released new recommendations last month for unvaccinated students exposed to the coronavirus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said those students could remain in school, as long as they are tested for the virus twice in the week after exposure and both tests come back negative.
The latest guidance, known as the test-to-stay" protocol, aims to minimize disruptions to learning as two highly contagious variants of the virus, delta and omicron, spread across the United States, causing some school closures and threatening to upend the strategies that federal and state officials adopted to return to in-person classes in the fall.
Although some schools and districts are already using the test-to-stay approach, the CDC had not previously endorsed it, citing a lack of evidence. Last month, the agency released studies from two counties, one in California and the other in Illinois, that effectively tested the protocol and found that it worked.
The studies were conducted before the fast-moving omicron variant began spreading in the United States. Scientists are still investigating many basic questions about the variant, including whether it increases the risk of in-school transmission.
The new policy, hinted at in the winter COVID-19 plan that President Joe Biden unveiled last month, still calls on students to wear masks and socially distance, and applies only to those who remain asymptomatic. Until now, unvaccinated students were expected to quarantine at home for as long as two weeks after exposure. Some states have had tens of thousands of students in quarantine.
Vaccinated students with exposures have generally been allowed to remain in school as long as they are asymptomatic and wear a mask.
4:34 p.m.: Nova Scotia's top doctor said he's cautiously encouraged by the province's low hospitalization rate for COVID-19, but warned Monday that things could change very quickly.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Strang did not introduce any new public health measures, but he did emphasize that people must continue to follow public health advice, get vaccinated and get tested if they think they have the virus.
Though the province reported 1,020 new cases of COVID-19 Monday - a figure Premier Tim Houston called breathtaking" - Strang said he couldn't justify imposing a stricter lockdown.
We can accept a fair degree of spread of the virus to allow us to continue to do some of the things that protect our mental and emotional well being and minimize financial impacts," Strang told reporters during a briefing in Halifax. However, we also have to work together to slow the spread of the Omicron variant to protect vulnerable people in the health care system."
Houston, who joined Strang via teleconference for the briefing, said there are 36 people in the province hospitalized because of COVID-19, and 31 of those patients were admitted since the Omicron variant was first detected last month. Of those hospitalized patients, over 77 per cent are vaccinated, and they range in age from 19 to 98, Houston said.
To date, two things so far remain consistent," he said. This variant appears less severe, but the volume is certainly breathtaking. And the second thing is, the vaccines work to reduce severe illness."
Though public health did not provide the number of reported active cases on Monday, online government data shows less than one per cent of people in the province with COVID-19 were hospitalized as of Dec. 31.
By comparison, the province logged 6,067 cases from March 15 to Nov. 9. Data shows 314 of those patients were hospitalized, for a rate of five per cent.
Strang said hundreds of health-care workers, both in the hospital and long-term care system, are having to stay home either because they're sick with the variant or they've been identified as a close contact.
So the health-care system is managing the hospitalizations for now," he added. But there are substantive operational impacts that are occurring throughout the system."
Public health is reviewing its isolation requirements for those who have been identified as a close contact of a COVID-19 case, and an announcement about any changes will likely be made Wednesday, he said.
On Monday, the province also opened up its booster shot eligibility to anyone aged 30 and older, and who received their second dose of a vaccine at least six months ago. Houston said 92,000 booster appointments were posted Monday and promptly filled.
You certainly came out in droves. Thank you for that," he said. More appointments are coming."
4:33 p.m.: Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday said he's waiting on the federal government to send COVID-19 treatments to re-establish sites for residents to combat the virus. He also blamed the federal government for a shortage of COVID-19 tests that have led to long lines at testing centers and runs on at-home testing kits as the omicron variant of the virus courses through the state.
We will turn on additional sites as soon as the federal government gives us the supply," DeSantis told reporters at a Fort Lauderdale hospital, adding that between 30,000 and 40,000 doses of monoclonal antibody treatments have been pledged. It's all locked and loaded; it's just a matter of the federal government giving us more doses."
DeSantis didn't say when he expects the doses to arrive but said he'll set up treatment sites in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties as well as a site in Central Florida the next day."
DeSantis criticized an earlier decision by President Joe Biden's administration to withhold some monoclonal antibody doses to states because initial data in some studies show they aren't as effective against the omicron variant as they are against the delta variant.
Florida Surgeon General Joe Ladapo wrote to the Health and Human Services Department last week, noting the delta variant is still infecting residents. The agency later said it would continue to send the treatments, but they haven't yet arrived.
DeSantis also chided the Biden administration for what he called the testing crunch" and said Ladapo will be putting out guidance on who should get tested that focuses on patients who would be more likely to suffer severe symptoms, such as the elderly and those with preexisting conditions.
Ladapo said the guidance wouldn't restrict access to testing" but would seek to unwind the testing psychology that our federal leadership has managed to unfortunately get most of the country in over the last two years."
We need to unwind this testing - planning and living one's life around testing," he added. Without it we're going to be stuck in this same cycle. It's time for people to be living."
4:27 p.m.: Ontario business owners were fretting about the future of their companies as workers braced for layoffs after the province levied new COVID-19 measures forcing some to close their doors temporarily and others to limit visitors.
The latest public health measures announced by Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Monday require restaurants and bars to halt indoor dining and cease selling alcohol after 10 p.m. starting on Wednesday.
Retail settings, including shopping malls and personal care services, must reduce their capacity to 50 per cent, while indoor concert venues, theatres, cinemas, museums, galleries and other attractions are required to close.
The policies meant to curtail the province's soaring COVID-19 cases are expected to remain in place until at least Jan. 26, but businesses fear even three weeks of closures will result in lost income and layoffs and exacerbate existing labour shortages and mounting costs.
"I'm just in the middle of nowhere right now. I am really disappointed," said Andy Page, the owner of Tomyum Restaurant and Wine Bar in Toronto.
"Every day I open my eyes and I see a whole bunch of bills just waiting for me to pay and a lot of people ask me why I still carry on. To be honest, it's because I have no backup plan."
More weeks closed will mean the bills - already high from rising inflation rates - will mount even further and Page will have to work harder to retain the staff he managed to hire in a tight labour market.
The Ontario government tried to ease some of those financial tensions on Monday with an expanded rebate program for businesses affected by the new slate of closures.
Certain businesses ordered to close will be reimbursed for 100 per cent of property tax and energy costs, it said, while ones required to reduce capacity to 50 per cent will receive a rebate payment for half those expenses.
4:05 p.m.: Yukon is reporting that COVID-19 case counts are on the rise, with 158 new infections recorded since Friday.
The acting Chief Medical Officer says in a statement that the territory now has a total of 245 active cases and a 32 per cent test positivity rate.
Dr. Catherine Elliott is urging the public to stay home if they feel sick with even the mildest symptoms.
Yukon also announced new public health measures on New Year's Eve that are set to begin on Jan. 7 in an attempt to curb the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
They include limiting indoor personal gatheringsto 10 people, capping outdoor gatherings at 25 people, and restricting organized indoor gatherings to 50 per cent of a venue's capacity while requiring proof of vaccination.
Restaurants, bars and nightclubs will also be limited to serving a total of six people per table with proof of vaccination, and all public saunas and steam rooms are being ordered to close.
3:52 p.m.: One of the largest Quebec daycare unions is condemning the province's latest measure shortening the recommended isolation periods for asymptomatic staff and kids who have contact with positive cases of COVID-19.
The Federation des intervenantes en petite enfance du Quebec, which represents 3,200 members, is asking the government to suspend the recommendation.
The news comes as Montreal public health announced it is putting off the measure for now.
Jean-Nicolas Aube, a spokesperson for one of Montreal's public health authorities, says they are in talks with the government regarding the situation.
Quebec had recommended on Dec. 30 that daycare employees and children who were in contact with a COVID-19 positive case not be required to get a test, if they were asymptomatic.
The government also says employees and children can continue to attend daycares, with some exceptions such as if a member of their household has tested positive for COVID-19.
3:32 p.m.: Quebec reported 15,293 new COVID-19 cases on Monday and 15 more deaths linked to the virus, as Canada's public safety minister announced members of the Canadian Armed Forces will be mobilized to speed up the province's vaccination efforts.
Bill Blair made the announcement on Twitter Monday morning, saying the decision followed a request for aid from the province.
Following our approval of Quebec's request for federal assistance, Canadian Armed Forces personnel will begin their deployment today to provide support to the province's vaccination campaign," he said.
The Defence Department said in a statement that up to 200 personnel are being deployed at vaccination centres in Montreal.
For the moment, it's just in the region of Montreal that the forces are being deployed," said Daniel Minden, a spokesperson for Defence Minister Anita Anand.
The news came a day before Quebec was set to expand eligibility for a COVID-19 booster vaccine to the entire adult population.
Getting booster shots into Quebecers' arms has become a priority as the province confronts the highly contagious Omicron variant, with hospitalizations and positive case counts rising over the holidays.
The Health Department said on Monday the number of hospitalizations linked to the virus rose by 165 to 1,396. It said 181 people were in intensive care, an increase of 19, while 47,386 COVID-19 tests were analyzed and 30.2 per cent came back positive.
Those 18 and over will be able to book appointments to receive a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine throughout January, following a new rollout by age group.
3:29 p.m.: Some school systems around the U.S. extended their holiday break Monday or switched back to online instruction because of the explosion in COVID-19 cases, while others pressed ahead with in-person classes amid a seemingly growing sense that Americans will have to learn to co-exist with the virus.
Caught between pleas from teachers fearful of infection and parents who want their children in class, school districts in cities such as Milwaukee, New York, Detroit and beyond found themselves in a difficult position at the start of the second half of the academic year because of the super-contagious omicron variant.
New York City, home of the nation's largest public school system, reopened classrooms to roughly 1 million students with a stock of take-home COVID-19 test kits and plans to double the number of random tests done in schools.
We are going to be safe, and we will be open to educate our children," newly sworn-in Mayor Eric Adams said on MSNBC.
New Yorker Trisha White said that she feels the risk is the same for her 9-year-old son in or out of school and that being with classmates is far better for him than remote learning.
He could get the virus outside of school," she said as she dropped the boy off. So what can you do? You know, I wouldn't blame the school system. They're trying their best."
While the teachers union had asked the mayor to postpone in-person learning for a week, city officials have long said that mask requirements, testing and other safety measures mean that children are safe in school. The city also has a vaccination mandate for employees.
New cases of COVID-19 in the city shot up from a daily average of about 17,000 in the week before the holidays to nearly 37,000 last week.
New COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have tripled in the past two weeks to over 400,000 a day, the highest level on record, amid a rush by many Americans to get tested. The outbreak is putting a heavy burden on vital sectors of the economy, including hospitals and the airline industry, which are seeing large numbers of employees infected.
3:21 p.m.: An Ontario First Nation is requesting military assistance amid a COVID-19 outbreak that has infected half of its on-reserve population and crippled" daily operations.
Bearskin Lake First Nation says 174 people have tested positive, including people in essential jobs with administration and maintenance units for the band.
The First Nation says most households are quarantining and need deliveries of food, water, chopped wood and medication, and the community does not have space to host testing or isolation centres.
Chief Lefty Kamenawatamin says resources are being stretched to a breaking point.
Kamenawatamin says the community has asked for financial support from the federal government but resources offered so far have been minimal."
The community 425 kilometres north of Sioux Lookout, Ont., declared a state of emergency last week due to the outbreak.
3:11 p.m.: Health officials in Prince Edward Island are reporting 161 new cases of COVID-19 as the Omicron variant rips through the province.
Less than two weeks ago on Christmas Eve, the province reported 40 cases and flagged the figure as a new record.
A government news release today says there are 995 active reported infections on the Island.
It says three people are in hospital due to COVID-19, one of whom is in intensive care.
Officials say four other people who were in hospital for other reasons have since tested positive for COVID-19.
Because of the increased demand and resulting pressure on its health-care system, Prince Edward Island is only offering polymerase chain reaction testing to select groups, including those with symptoms of COVID-19 and those identified as contacts of a known infection.
2 p.m.: Newfoundland and Labrador also announced new restrictions Monday, placing the province in Alert Level 4," as chief medical officer of health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald urged residents to keep non-essential contacts low.
Gyms and restaurants will operate under stricter capacity restrictions - 25 per cent or 50 people for fitness centres and 50 per cent for dining establishments with a maximum of six patrons per table. Organized team sports are cancelled under Newfoundland's new plan, which Fitzgerald said would be re-assessed in two weeks.
1:45 p.m.: British Columbia's Supreme and provincial courts are postponing in-person trials this week as they work with public health officials to update their COVID-19 safety policies.
The courts say in a written statement that all in-person civil and family matters scheduled between Jan. 4 and Jan. 7 will be postponed due to the rapid and concerning recent increase in COVID-19 in the province," but all virtual proceedings will continue as planned.
The Supreme Court is asking all lawyers and accused people with scheduled appearances this week to phone the court at the time of their proceeding to arrange a new date.
1:30 p.m.: Canada's Mark McMorris expects the Beijing Olympics will go ahead as planned.
The world-class snowboarder says he doesn't think organizers will postpone the upcoming Winter Games, even as COVID-19 numbers surge worldwide.
McMorris says it's likely too late to delay the Olympics scheduled in Beijing for the first three weeks of February.
The 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo were delayed one year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
1:15 p.m.: Chicago teachers are expected to vote Tuesday on whether to defy Chicago Public Schools' orders to return to classrooms amid a spike in city COVID-19 cases.
The Chicago Teachers Union's governing body - the 600-member House of Delegates - is expected to meet Tuesday. All of the union's 25,000 members are slated to receive an electronic ballot asking if they support working remotely instead of in person starting Wednesday.
I am so pissed off that we have to continuously fight for the basic necessities, the basic mitigations," CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates said Monday at a South Side news conference outside Park Manor Elementary School, where some teachers said they planned to work from home because of safety concerns.
1:05 p.m.: Canada's public safety minister says members of the Canadian Armed Forces will be deployed to Quebec starting Monday to speed up the province's vaccination efforts.
Bill Blair made the announcement on Twitter this morning, saying the decision was made as a result of a request for aid from the province.
The news comes a day before Quebec is set to start expanding eligibility for a COVID-19 booster vaccine to the entire adult population.
Getting booster shots into Quebecers' arms has become a priority as the province grapples with the highly contagious Omicron variant, with hospitalizations and positive case counts skyrocketing over the holidays.
1 p.m.: Toronto Maple Leafs star centre Auston Matthews and assistant coach Dean Chynoweth were held out of Monday's practice for what the team called precautionary reasons."
The Leafs announced the absences on Twitter, but did not provide further details.
Toronto has been working through a COVID-19 outbreak that saw 14 players and seven staff members placed in the NHL's coronavirus protocol at its height. Leafs defenceman Timothy Liljegren was the only player still in isolation when they beat the visiting Ottawa Senators 6-0 on Saturday.
11:50 a.m.: Quebec has updated its list of curfew exemptions to allow dog walking during hours when residents are otherwise expected to remain indoors.
The province says that between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., the hours covered by the most recent curfew imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19, Quebecers can take their dogs out within a radius of no more than one kilometre from their permanent or temporary residence.
The new exemption, which was updated on Sunday according to a government portal, comes in response to backlash from pet owners denouncing the lack of provisions for dog walking when the curfew first took effect on Dec. 31.
This is the second time the province is facing such a measure after a previous curfew introduced in early January 2021 was in effect for more than five months.
11:10 a.m.: In an about-face triggered by the Omicron surge, Premier Doug Ford is ordering schools to do virtual learning for at least the next two weeks and imposing other COVID-19 restrictions, such as a 21-day temporary ban on indoor restaurant dining.
As we continue with our provincial vaccine booster efforts, we must look at every option to slow the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant," the premier told reporters at Queen's Park on Monday.
Putting these targeted and time limited measures in place will give us more opportunity to deliver vaccines to all Ontarians and ensure everyone has maximum protection against this virus."
Read the full story from the Star's Robert Benzie and Kris Rushowy
10:52 a.m.: The Ottawa Senators have placed defenceman Thomas Chabot, forwards Zach Sanford and Chris Tierney and assistant coach Bob Jones in the NHL's COVID-19 protocol.
Ottawa now has nine players in the protocol. Chabot, Tierney and Sanford join goaltender Anton Forsberg, forwards Josh Norris, Tyler Ennis and Nick Paul and defencemen Dillon Heatherington and Jacob Bernard-Docker.
This is the second significant outbreak of COVID-19 on the Senators this season. The team had three of its games postponed in November after 10 players entered the league's COVID-19 protocol.
10:45 a.m. Kyro Maseh, one of the Star's vaccine heroes of 2021, is offering vaccines to educators only on Monday only ahead of the opening of schools. Pharmsave on Kingston road near Victoria Park is attracting of hundreds of instructors from all over the city who are braving the frigid temperatures for the shot. The clinic is slated to take place from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
10:35 a.m. The U.S. is expanding COVID-19 boosters as it confronts the Omicron surge, with the Food and Drug Administration allowing extra Pfizer shots for children as young as 12.
Boosters already are recommended for everyone 16 and older, and federal regulators on Monday decided they're also warranted for 12- to 15-year-olds once enough time has passed since their last dose.
But the move, coming as classes restart after the holidays, isn't the final step. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must decide whether to recommend boosters for the younger teens. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC's director, is expected to rule later this week.
The FDA also said everyone 12 and older who's eligible for a Pfizer booster can get one as early as five months after their last dose rather than six months.
10:20 a.m. Ontario is reporting 1,232 people hospitalized with COVID-19 and 248 in the ICU; at least 13,578 new COVID-19 cases have been reported, according to Health Minister Christine Elliott.
The seven-day rolling average of COVID-19 related patients in ICU is 210.
Not all hospitals report on weekends. Public Health Ontario says the number of infected people is likely higher due to recent policy changes which have made COVID-19 testing less accessible.
9:30 a.m. German clubs' preparations for the Bundesliga's resumption after the winter break are being hampered by coronavirus infections.
Defending champion Bayern Munich is among those worst affected, with Monday's training session put back until the late afternoon so players and coaching staff can be tested upon their return.
The team's return was already delayed by a day after the Bavarian club reported five COVID-19 infections - captain and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, players Kingsley Coman, Corentin Tolisso and Omar Richards, as well as assistant coach Dino Toppmoller, all tested positive.
It's unclear if the five are infected with the Omicron variant and whether they will miss Bayern's game against Borussia Monchengladbach to resume the league on Friday. Neuer, who said he was suffering from light symptoms, will miss the match.
8:30 a.m. The French government said it will ease access to crisis funds and could delay loan repayments for businesses struggling with a drop in activity as the surge in Omicron cases hits tourism and leisure activities.
We are standing by firms and workers in difficulty," Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said after meeting with representatives of business groups. This method has allowed to relaunch economic activity very quickly and very strongly."
To access support covering fixed costs, the government will cut the threshold to a 50 per cent loss of revenues from 65 per cent previously and accelerate the process for the smallest companies. The funds will also be made available to the whole tourism sector, including bars and restaurants.
Le Maire said the cost of the new measures would be in the hundreds of millions of euros and easily covered by 1.8 billion euros of unused crisis funds already budgeted.
8:03 a.m. Toronto's Zanzibar Tavern will be hosting a low barrier booster shot clinic Monday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
7:50 a.m. Schoolchildren returned to classes Monday in parts of Europe, while the British government pledged to rush ventilation units and enough COVID-19 test kits to schools to ensure they, too, can reopen later this week despite soaring infection rates in the UK.
Secondary school students in England also will be required to wear face masks when they return to classes after the Christmas holidays and they could also face merged classes amid staffing shortages.
The priority is to keep schools open," British Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi told Sky News. The testing, the staffing support we're putting in place, and of course the ventilation is going to make a big difference to schools this year."
The highly transmissible Omicron variant has caused Britain's daily new caseload to soar over Christmas and the New Year, with 137,583 infections and 73 deaths reported for England and Wales only on Sunday, with numbers for Scotland and Northern Ireland to be announced after the holiday weekend.
7:20 a.m. (updated) Ontario Premier Doug Ford is scheduled to make an announcement Monday morning at 11 a.m. as the Omicron variant drives record-breaking COVID-19 case numbers in the province.
The province says Health Minister Christine Elliott and Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore are set be in Toronto with Ford.
The CEO of Ontario Health, which oversees the province's health system, is also scheduled to be on site at Queen's Park.
Public Health Ontario reported 16,714 COVID-19 cases on Sunday after a record-breaking 18,445 reported the day before.
However, the organization warns that the real case numbers are likely higher due to recent changes making COVID-19 tests less widely accessible.
6:27 a.m.: U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said he tested positive for COVID and plans to quarantine at home for five days, attending meetings virtually when possible.
6:27 a.m.: Russia reported the lowest number of cases since June, while Germany is weighing new measures in the face of rising infections. In Hong Kong, the pace of vaccinations picked up even as the city's government denied rumours it will shut down borders or suspend dining-in at restaurants. China reported 101 new COVID cases, mostly in Xi'an, where some residents complained of a lack of access to food.
6:25 a.m.: Wintry weather combined with the pandemic to frustrate air travellers whose return flights home from the holidays were cancelled or delayed in the first days of the new year.
The tracking service FlightAware said more than 2,600 U.S. flights and more than 4,400 worldwide were grounded Sunday.
That followed Saturday's mass cancellations of more than 2,700 U.S. flights, and more than 4,700 worldwide.
Saturday's single-day U.S. toll of grounded flights was the highest since just before Christmas, when airlines began blaming staffing shortages on increasing COVID-19 infections among crews.
6:25 a.m.: Pandemics do eventually end, even if omicron is complicating the question of when this one will. But it won't be like flipping a light switch: The world will have to learn to coexist with a virus that's not going away.
The ultra-contagious omicron mutant is pushing cases to all-time highs and causing chaos as an exhausted world struggles, again, to stem the spread. But this time, we're not starting from scratch.
Vaccines offer strong protection from serious illness, even if they don't always prevent a mild infection. Omicron doesn't appear to be as deadly as some earlier variants. And those who survive it will have some refreshed protection against other forms of the virus that still are circulating - and maybe the next mutant to emerge, too.
The newest variant is a warning about what will continue to happen unless we really get serious about the endgame," said Dr. Albert Ko, an infectious disease specialist at the Yale School of Public Health.
6:24 a.m.: Indian health authorities Monday began vaccinating teens in the age group of 15 to 18, as more states started to enforce tighter restrictions to arrest a new surge stoked by the infectious omicron variant.
State governments across India administered doses at schools, hospitals and through special vaccination sites amid a rapid rise in coronavirus infections, particularly in the country's densely populated cities.
Data from the Health Ministry showed India confirmed over 33,000 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. Deaths increased by 123, bringing the total to nearly 482,000.
Authorities are saying that even as cases have started to rise rapidly, hospitalizations have not gone up.
There is no need to panic," Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, said Sunday.
India has so far recorded almost 35 million COVID-19 infections.
6:23 a.m.: Japan's capital found 103 new coronavirus cases on Monday, the most in nearly three months according to data from the Tokyo government.
The number of serious cases remained at 1. But the seven-day average case load figure rose to 75.7, nearly doubling from the previous week.
While Japan has managed so far to avoid a mass outbreak of the omicron variant, the number of new cases have been creeping up in recent weeks. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has taken a tough approach to border restrictions, which appears to have led to a rise in his approval ratings.
6:23 a.m.: A record 10 million people were diagnosed with COVID-19 in the seven days through Sunday, almost twice the pandemic's previous weekly high, as Omicron spreads across the globe. Weekly deaths continued to drop.
6:22 a.m.: Is anyone going to CES this year?
A long-simmering question in the tech world will finally get its answer as the influential gadget show returns to the Las Vegas Strip after a hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
We know it will be a smaller show this year, for obvious reasons," said Jean Foster, senior vice president at the Consumer Technology Association, the event's organizer. Several huge tech companies have abandoned plans to attend in person. The latest sign of its dwindling size was Friday's announcement that CES will run one day shorter than originally planned.
The sprawling exhibition floors open Wednesday as the spread of COVID-19's omicron variant has heightened concerns about the safety of indoor events and international travel. The CTA by late December was anticipating between 50,000 and 75,000 attendees for this week's conference, down from more than 170,000 who came for the last in-person gathering two years ago.
Some diehard CES devotees were mulling over the choice to go or stay home right up until last week.
An online CES is not a real CES," said Prince Constantijn of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in a December interview. You've got to see the products and meet the people." But a week later, the royal who regularly serves as a special envoy for Dutch technology startups had opted to stay home after all. His country is sending a bare-bones crew to CES 2022. So are many big tech companies - if they send anyone at all.
The last physical CES in January 2020 pumped an estimated $300 million into the Las Vegas economy. Few attendees would have known then about the coronavirus outbreak emerging in central China and still months away from being declared a pandemic. The CTA took the conference online in 2021 as COVID-19 hospitalizations were spiking around the world and vaccines weren't yet widely available.
6:20 a.m.: Effective today, people in Alberta with at least two doses of vaccine who test positive for COVID-19 will only need to isolate for five days instead of 10.
Health Minister Jason Copping announced the change last week in the face of the rapidly spreading Omicron variant, saying it was based on evidence that fully immunized people have shorter infectious periods.
Symptoms must be fully resolved by the end of the five-day period, otherwise people must continue to isolate.
For five days after isolation, those people will be required to wear a mask around others at all times when in public.
Copping says it will prevent disruptions in the workforce, especially for those who deliver important services.
Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick and British Columbia have also reduced the self-isolation period to five days.
Education Minister Adriana LaGrange also announced last week that in-person classes for kindergarten to Grade 12 students would be delayed until Jan. 10.
She said the longer break would allow school authorities to plan for a successful startup.