Category Archives: Corona Virus

Specialist Meric Greenbaum, left, works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Black Friday. Stocks dropped after a coronavirus variant appears to be spreading across the globe. Richard Drew/AP hide caption

Specialist Meric Greenbaum, left, works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Black Friday. Stocks dropped after a coronavirus variant appears to be spreading across the globe.

Stock markets around the world tumbled on Friday after scientists in South Africa identified a new, fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average recording its biggest single-day drop of the year.

At one point, the Dow fell more than 1,000 points before recovering slightly to close down 905 points, or about 2.5%, for the session. Oil prices dropped more than 10%, their steepest one-day decline since early in the pandemic.

Virologists are rushing to learn more about the variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 that was first identified in Botswana, and which is rapidly outcompeting other versions of the virus in the region of South Africa that includes Johannesburg.

The United States said it will restrict travelers from South Africa and seven other countries starting Monday. It joined at least 10 other countries restricting travel from the region, including Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malta, the Netherlands, the Philippines and Singapore, The New York Times reported.

The variant, currently denominated B.1.1.529, reportedly could have far more mutations than those displayed by the delta variant, which became the dominant variant in most of the world over the summer.

It's not clear yet whether the mutations make this variant more infectious or whether it causes more severe illness, but researchers say the high number of mutations to the "spike proteins" the focus of a body's immune response may make it more able to get past the body's defenses.

Despite the spread of this variant, the number of COVID-19 cases in South Africa is still well below the delta surge earlier this year. But numbers are beginning to tick up again.

The European Commission recommended its members block travel from countries where the variant has been found, as Belgium reported a case, according to the BBC. The broadcaster said in addition to Botswana and South Africa, cases have also shown up in Hong Kong and Israel.

The World Health Organization called an emergency meeting on Friday, where it named the new variant omicron, after the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet, and designated it a "Variant of Concern."

"This news is putting the handbrake on markets," Peter Rutter, the head of equities at Royal London Asset Management, told Reuters.

"There is a huge range of outcomes that can happen. We could have serious lockdowns or we get no lockdowns and a booming economy," Rutter said. "The very fact we don't know, is what's concerning the market."

The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 were also down more than 2% on Friday, as U.S. markets closed early for the holiday.

Even after the global selloff, U.S. stock markets remain in positive territory for the year. The Dow is up more than 15% since the beginning of 2021, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are both up more than 20%.

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Stocks and oil prices drop as the world reacts to new coronavirus variant omicron - NPR

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 260 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths has now passed 5.18 million. More than 7.81 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.

Eligibility for COVID-19 booster shots has been expanded in the United States, with millions of Americans getting their third dose last week.

The Czech Republic reported 27,717 new COVID-19 cases yesterday - the highest single-day total since the beginning of the pandemic.

Pfizer and MSD - known as Merck & Co in North America - have agreed to give licenses to firms in Viet Nam to produce COVID-19 treatment pills, the Vietnamese government has announced.

Three locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in Shanghai city have prompted authorities to limit tourism activities, while the city of Xuzhou has suspended some public transport after a confirmed asymptomatic case.

COVID-19 vaccination is safe for pregnant women and not associated with higher rates of complications, data released by the UK Health Security Agency showed on Thursday.

Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in selected countries.

Image: Our World in Data

The COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship is a coalition of 85 global leaders, hosted by the World Economic Forum. Its mission: Join hands in support of social entrepreneurs everywhere as vital first responders to the pandemic and as pioneers of a green, inclusive economic reality.

Its COVID Social Enterprise Action Agenda, outlines 25 concrete recommendations for key stakeholder groups, including funders and philanthropists, investors, government institutions, support organizations, and corporations. In January of 2021, its members launched its 2021 Roadmap through which its members will roll out an ambitious set of 21 action projects in 10 areas of work. Including corporate access and policy change in support of a social economy.

For more information see the Alliance website or its impact story here.

South African scientists have detected a new variant of COVID-19 and are working to understand its possible implications, they said yesterday.

The variant - called B.1.1.529 - has a "very unusual constellation" of mutations, which are concerning because they could help it evade the body's immune response and make it more transmissible, scientists told reporters at a news conference.

South Africa has requested an urgent meeting today of a World Health Organization working group on virus evolution to discuss the new variant.

Other countries, including India, Australia, Japan and the UK, have voiced concern, with some moving to impose travel restrictions from South Africa and some neighbouring countries.

"This is the most significant variant we have encountered to date and urgent research is underway to learn more about its transmissibility, severity and vaccine-susceptibility," the UK's Health Security Agency Chief Executive Jenny Harries said.

Countries across Europe have expanded COVID-19 vaccine booster programmes, introduced plans to vaccinate young children and increased restrictions in response to rising COVID-19 cases.

Slovakia has gone into a two-week lockdown, the Czech Republic has declared a 30-day state of emergency, which includes the early closure of bars and clubs and a ban on Christmas markets, while Germany has crossed the threshold of 100,000 COVID-19-related deaths. Germany also reported a record number of daily COVID-19 cases on Thursday - 75,961.

In France authorities have said that COVID-19 vaccine booster shots would be available to everyone aged over 18, while the Netherlands is planning for new restrictions to slow the spread of the virus. Portugal has also announced it would reimpose restrictions.

The European Union's medical regulator has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use in children aged 5- to 11-years-old. The EU Commisison has also proposed that residents will need booster shots if they wish to travel to other countries in the bloc free of tests or quarantines next summer.

It also proposed accepting all vaccines approved by the World Health Organization for travel shots. The move would allow non-essential travel to the EU from outside the bloc for those vaccinated with Chinese- or Indian-made vaccines.

Meanwhile, the WHO Regional Office for Europe and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), estimates that 470,000 lives have been saved among those aged 60 years and over since the start of COVID-19 vaccination roll-out in 33 countries across the WHO European Region.

Written by

Joe Myers, Writer, Formative Content

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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COVID-19: Top news stories about the coronavirus pandemic on 26 November | World Economic Forum - World Economic Forum

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been briefed on the latest situation regarding the new Omicron coronavirus variant, the White House said on Saturday, as Britain, Germany and Italy reported detecting cases.

Biden, who was spending Thanksgiving with family in Nantucket, Massachusetts, told reporters on Friday: We dont know a lot about the variant except that it is of great concern [and] seems to spread rapidly.

Omicron was first detected in South Africa, leading countries including the US to impose travel restrictions on that nation and at least seven others in the region.

No cases of Omicron have been identified in the US to date, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The agency expects that it would identify the variant quickly if it emerges in the US.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease specialist and chief White House medical adviser, told NBC on Saturday he would not be surprised if the variant were already in the US.

When you have a virus that is showing this degree of transmissibility and youre already having travel-related cases that theyve noted in Israel and Belgium and other places, when you have a virus like this, it almost invariably is ultimately going to go essentially all over, Fauci said.

Asked about next moves to deal with the Omicron threat, Harris told reporters the administration would take it one step at a time.

For now weve done what we think is necessary, she said.

The White House said senior health officials and its Covid response team were monitoring the latest updates on Omicron and were in regular touch with officials around the world.

In New York, one of the states hit hardest and earliest by Covid-19, the governor announced steps to limit a new winter wave of infections as transmission rates approach those of April 2020.

New York has recorded more than 2.7m cases of Covid-19 and more than 57,000 deaths, the fourth highest state death toll, behind California, Texas and Florida.

Late on Friday, Governor Kathy Hochul said: While the new Omicron variant has yet to be detected in New York state, its coming.

The next day, the banner headline on the front page of the New York Post tabloid said simply: Omi-God, Not Again.

Hochul also issued an executive order postponing elective surgeries, a move designed to protect hospital capacity until at least 15 January, and a disaster emergency declaration.

Covid hospital admissions in New York have increased to more than 300 a day. Hospitals with less than 10% staffed bed capacity, or those designated by the state, will be authorized to screen patients and restrict admissions.

Hochul said: Weve taken extraordinary action to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and combat this pandemic. However, we continue to see warning signs of spikes this upcoming winter.

The governor urged New Yorkers to mask up in indoor public venues, get tested when appropriate and to stay home when ill.

Two-thirds of New York state residents are fully vaccinated and close to 80% have received at least one dose, according to the governors office. But New York state is divided between intensively vaccinated downstate areas, including New York City, and upstate areas that have lower vaccination rates and higher rates of infection.

According to the state health department, Buffalo and western New York has a 9.67% Covid positivity rate. The positivity rate in New York City is 1.65%, less than half the 3.84% state average. Vaccination rates in some regions are as low as 52%. In New York City, 97% of Queens adults and 94% of Manhattan adults have had the jab.

Hochul urged New Yorkers to get the vaccination, noting that just under 10% of adults in the state have not.

The vaccine remains one of our greatest weapons in fighting the pandemic and I encourage every New Yorker to get vaccinated and get the booster if youre fully vaccinated, she said.

As parts of the US experience Covid surges, intensive care units in Michigan are approaching capacity. New York and other eastern states are watching closely.

On Friday the mayor-elect of New York City, Eric Adams, said the Omicron variant was a concerning development that we must watch extremely closely, and be prepared to address as a city, state and country. Our health officials must have response options available should it prove to be significantly more virulent.

Adams and the outgoing mayor, Bill de Blasio, earlier came together to urge city residents to get the vaccines and booster shots.

Continued here:

Biden and Harris briefed as US braces for arrival of Omicron Covid variant - The Guardian

The emergence of Omicron has prompted widespread speculation that it may be more resistant to Covid-19 vaccines than existing variants, including Delta. But what does that mean for the average double-vaccinated person?

All the vaccines currently available in the UK work by training the immune system against the coronavirus spike protein the key it uses to infect cells by binding to the ACE2 receptor. Omicron possesses more than 30 mutations in this protein, including 10 in the so-called receptor-binding domain (RBD) the specific part that latches on to this receptor. Delta has two RBD mutations.

However, even with all these changes, there will still be areas (epitopes) to which antibodies and T cells which grow in response to previous infection or vaccination will be able to respond.

If you scribble the mutations on to a picture of the spike proteins crystal structure, and relate that to all of the main antibody activities that we know about, it looks kind of terrifying like, most of your key, neutralising antibody targets will be shot to pieces, so whats going to be left of your immune protection? said Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London.

And yet, the soundings were getting from South Africa seem to be saying that it doesnt look severe, and the people who are going to hospital are the unvaccinated, rather than the vaccinated, as if vaccination was still buying [them] some cover.

Then there are T cells immune cells that recognise and attack virus-infected cells, and educate antibody-producing B cells about the viral risk they are facing.

We all think that the T cells can see the differences [between variants], and that the T cell repertoire is much more impervious to it, so that might also buy you some protection, Altmann said.

The question is, how much protection? We know that people who have been double-jabbed can, and do, get infected with the Delta variant although the chances of this happening are approximately three times lower than if they hadnt been vaccinated. More importantly, vaccinated individuals are roughly nine times less likely to die if they do become infected.

Although it looks as though infection with Omicron is even more likely, Prof Paul Morgan, an immunologist at Cardiff University, said: I think a blunting rather than a complete loss [of immunity] is the most likely outcome.

The virus cant possibly lose every single epitope on its surface, because if it did that spike protein couldnt work any more. So, while some of the antibodies and T cell clones made against earlier versions of the virus, or against the vaccines may not be effective, there will be others, which will remain effective.

Further boosting that protection, by broadening access to third doses of Covid-19 vaccines, is therefore a good idea. Morgan said: If half, or two-thirds, or whatever it is, of the immune response is not going to be effective, and youre left with the residual half, then the more boosted that is the better.

For individuals who have been double-jabbed and infected with Delta, the picture is better still. If youve been double-jabbed and then infected with Delta and recovered, then you have got a very broad, very effective immune response, that probably covers pretty much any variant that you can think of, said David Matthews, professor of virology at the University of Bristol.

This is because such individuals have been exposed to the virus (through infection with Delta) and the spike protein from the original Wuhan strain (through vaccination). It means youve got an antibody response that covers both classic and modern strains and a very broad T cell response, not just against the spike protein, but against all the other proteins that Sars-CoV-2 makes and thats incredibly helpful, Matthews said.

The biggest worry is for those who remain unvaccinated. If they are right that this virus is even better at transmitting than Delta, and it looks like they are, what will happen is that it will speed up the rate at which this virus finds the unvaccinated and puts them in hospitals, and that will therefore increase the pressure on the NHS, said Matthews. That is what will trigger a lockdown, if hospitalisation rates go above a certain threshold, whatever that is.

There are some reasons to be optimistic, however. The first is that we dont yet know how the Omicron variant will behave in a highly vaccinated population, such as the UKs. It is quite possible that people who have had two or, better still, three doses of existing vaccines will be well protected against it, said Dr Peter English, a retired consultant in communicable disease control. But it is also possible that we will have much less protection from existing vaccines against this new variant. We do not yet have enough information to know.

Another is the existence of antiviral drugs, such as molnupiravir, to which Omicron should still be responsive. Nearly half a million doses of this twice-daily pill were due to be delivered this month, and will be given as a priority to elderly Covid patients and those with particular vulnerabilities, such as weakened immune systems, through a national study being run by the NHS. Because the drug is most effective when given in the early stages of infection, the MHRA recommends it is used as soon as possible after a positive test for Covid and within five days of symptoms appearing.

Existing therapies, such as the anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone, are also likely to work against Omicron, because it targets the bodys response to the virus, rather than the virus itself.

Finally, there is the possibility of modifying the existing vaccines to match the Omicron variant, if it really does evade vaccine-induced immune responses to a significant degree something we wont know for a number of weeks.

English said: The mRNA and vector platforms allow very rapid changes to be made to the precise antigens used. This means that it would be possible, relatively quickly (within a matter of months), to produce a vaccine with antigens tailored to a new variant.

Omicron is undoubtedly a bump in the road leading us out of this pandemic, and quite possibly a major pothole, but based on what we know so far, it seems unlikely to send us back to where we were a year ago. However, the more people who are fully jabbed, and have access to those third doses, the more certain of this we are likely to be.

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What does appearance of Omicron variant mean for the double-vaccinated? - The Guardian

Three generations, (from left to right) grandmother Genoveva Calloway, daughter Petra Gonzales, and granddaughter Vanesa Quintero, live next door to each other in San Pablo, Calif. Recently their extended family was hit with a second wave of COVID infections a year after the first. Beth LaBerge/KQED hide caption

Three generations, (from left to right) grandmother Genoveva Calloway, daughter Petra Gonzales, and granddaughter Vanesa Quintero, live next door to each other in San Pablo, Calif. Recently their extended family was hit with a second wave of COVID infections a year after the first.

On a Friday afternoon in early October this year, 8-year-old Maricia Redondo came home from her third grade class in the San Francisco Bay Area with puffy eyes, a runny nose and a cough.

"On Saturday morning we both got tested," says Vanessa Quintero, Maricia's 31-year-old mother. "Our results came back Monday that we were both positive."

Vanessa stared at her phone in shock and called her doctor's test-result hotline again, in disbelief. "This is wrong," she thought. "I hung up and dialed again. It's positive. This is wrong. I hung up again. And then I did it again!"

She was freaking out for two reasons. First, her large, extended family had already fought a harrowing battle against COVID-19 last year in the fall of 2020. The virus had traveled fast and furious through their working class neighborhood back then, in the East Bay city of San Pablo. Four generations of Vanessa's family live next door to each other in three different houses there, all connected by a backyard.

Vanessa was also terrified because she couldn't fathom another round of treatment against a more dangerous variant than she'd faced before. The pandemic has disproportionately struck Latino families across the United States, and delta is currently the predominant variant in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's twice as contagious and may cause more severe illnesses than previous variants in unvaccinated people.

The family's bad luck was uncanny. Research suggests immunity against a natural infection lasts about a year. And here it was almost exactly the same time of year and the family was fighting COVID-19 again.

"Reinfection is a thing," says Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a specialist in infections diseases and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. "It probably manifests itself more when the variant in town looks different enough from the previous variants. Or enough time has elapsed since you first got it, [and] immunity has waned." He says a second infection is still not common, but doctors are starting to see more cases.

Computer models in a recent study suggest that people who have been infected by the virus can expect a reinfection within a year or two if they do not wear a mask or receive a vaccination. The findings show that the risk of a second bout rises over time. A person has a 5% chance of catching the virus four months after an initial infection, but a 50% chance 17 months later.

"The second time it was scarier because I'm vaccinated," says Vanessa referring to the family's second bout with the virus in October 2021. "Her dad's vaccinated. We're protected in that sense, but she's [Maricia] not."

Her 8-year-old daughter was still too young to qualify for a vaccine. This fall the little girl lay in bed wheezing. Vanessa tripled down on Maricia's asthma medication and the parents quarantined themselves inside, too. Vanessa shuddered at the prospect of telling her mother and grandma about a second round of positive test results.

During a 2020 family gathering on Halloween, Maricia complained she wasn't feeling good. Over the next few days Vanessa, and Vanessa's partner, mother, two cousins, two aunts, an uncle and two grandmothers all tested positive for COVID-19. Eventually at least 13 family members caught the virus at that time and several got quite sick.

Multiple family members had to be rushed to the hospital.

Vanessa, who, like her 8-year-old daughter Maricia, suffers from asthma, was the first person to need that emergency care. "I was on the floor," Vanessa remembers. "I couldn't even say 'I'm hungry' without coughing."

Then Vanessa's 51-year-old mother, Petra Gonzales, almost blacked out.

"I got a really high fever," says Petra. "There were times when I'd fall asleep and I was OK if I didn't wake up."

In last year's COVID bout, Petra landed in the ER with severe dehydration. Soon she heard that her 71-year-old mother, Genoveva Calloway, needed hospital care for dangerously low oxygen levels and was being treated at another hospital across town.

Unlike Petra and Vanessa, who were not admitted for an extended stay at the hospital in 2020, and slowly recovered at home, Genoveva's condition was critical. She spent day after day under close supervision from doctors and nurses.

"It was really painful not to be able to help my family, because we always help each other," says Genoveva, as her voice cracked with emotion. "We are always there for each other. It was so horrible."

Finally, after nearly two weeks in the hospital, Genoveva was discharged. She was still connected to an oxygen machine as nurses shuffled her out. When Genoveva and Petra greeted each other on the street, they embraced fiercely.

"She hugged me so tight," says Genoveva. "I'll never forget that. We missed each other so much."

A year later, though, Genoveva is still recovering. She's now plagued by interstitial lung disease. That's why another round of the virus this year is a terrifying possibility.

Fortunately the family's worst fears did not unfold. Genoveva was out of town when her great-granddaughter, Maricia, brought the virus home this time, and Maricia herself recovered. The other adults did not develop symptoms they credit the COVID vaccinations they'd been able to get before the delta surge this fall. Research published by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention concludes that vaccines offer better protection against reinfections than a natural infection. However, if a breakthrough infection occurs after someone's been vaccinated it will act like a natural "booster" and result in hybrid immunity according to Chin-Hong. He suggests most patients who are not immunocompromised wait three months until after a recent infection before getting a vaccine or a booster.

"Each exposure we have, whether it's from the infection or whether it's from the vaccine, improves our ability to combat an infection the next time around," says Dr. Julie Parsonnet, a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Stanford University.

But Parsonnet also notes there are a lot of variables at play. First, immunity wanes. Second, the virus can mutate. Third, no vaccine provides 100% protection, and the shots may not be equally protective for everyone.

"There are certain people, including the elderly, people who are immunocompromised and people on dialysis, who really can't mount a good immune response," Parsonnet says. "They're always also going to be at risk. So every child getting vaccinated helps protect all those other people in the family that they may live with, or their neighbors."

Multi-generational living is common in Genoveva's community in the Bay Area. And her city, San Pablo, is a hot spot in Contra Costa County, where 1 out of 11 people have tested positive for the coronavirus. At the height of the pandemic, nearly 800 people tested positive in the county every day.

"Our neighborhood has three, four generations living in the same house," Genoveva says.

She says her recent booster shot allows her more peace of mind. Genoveva is looking forward to the day when her great-granddaughter and the rest of her family are finally vaccinated.

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COVID hit this family twice, but vaccines blunted reinfections : Shots - Health News - NPR

There are two confirmed cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus in Ottawa, the Ontario government announced Sunday.

"Today, the province of Ontario has confirmed two cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19 in Ottawa, both of which were reported in individuals with recent travel from Nigeria. Ottawa Public Health is conducting case and contact management and the patients are in isolation," the statement said.

These are the first cases of the omicron variant confirmed in Canada, coming just days after the country implemented new travel restrictions on foreign nationals who had visited several countries in southern Africa over the preceding two weeks.

Those travel restrictions went into effect on Friday. The omicron variant was first identified by South African researchers and has provoked global concern.

Little is known about the new variant, dubbed omicron by the World Health Organization and labelled as a variant of concern. It is being linked to a rapid rise of cases in a South African province.

It is not known at this time whether the variant is more transmissible, or more dangerous to the health of those who are infected by it, than other coronavirus variants.

"The best defence against the omicron variant is stopping it at our border. In addition to the measures recently announced, we continue to urge the federal government to take the necessary steps to mandate point-of-arrival testing for all travellers irrespective of where they're coming from to further protect against the spread of this new variant," said the statement from Ontario Health MinisterChristine Elliott and Dr. Kieran Moore, the province's chief medical officer of health.

The provincial government urged residents to get vaccinated, including with booster doses, and to continue following public health guidance.

"Ontario is prepared and ready to respond to this new variant."

In a statement released Sunday, federal Health MinisterJean-Yves Duclossaid the confirmation of two omicron cases isa signal that the country's monitoring system isworking but to expect more cases of the variant.

"As the monitoring and testing continues with provinces and territories, it is expected that other cases of this variant will be found in Canada," Duclos said.

"I know that this new variant may seem concerning," headded, but said existing vaccines and public health measures were helping to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

In a separate statement, the Public Health Agency of Canada said border measures could change as the situation develops.

"The Government of Canada will continue to assess the evolving situation and adjust border measures as required," it said

Reacting to the news, epidemiologistDr. Christopher Labosemphasized the lack of information the world has so far about the omicron variant, noting that some other variants failed to take hold and out-compete the dominant strain.

"While it's important not to under-react, it's important not to overreact. We don't have a lot of information about whether this variant is actually more dangerous than the variants that we've dealt with," he said in an interview on CBC News Network.

Still, he said it was "better to be safe than sorry" and take precautions. But he said that until there was more information, it was not necessary to radically change behaviour, so long as you are vaccinated and otherwise acting in accordance with public health guidance.

"The stuff that worked before should work now."

The World Health Organization (WHO)released a statement on Sunday summarizing what it knowsabout the variant. It said it isstudying whether the variant ismore transmissible than those currently spreading, such as delta, as well as whether omicron increasesthe risk of reinfection, as suggested by "preliminary evidence."

The idea of travel bans in response to new variants has long been criticizedby some as an ineffective measure at stopping the spread of the virus. South Africa has said the travel measures are "unjustified."

Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO's regional director for Africa, said instituting travel bans targeted at southern Africa "attacks global solidarity."

"COVID-19 constantly exploits our divisions. We will only get the better of the virus if we work together for solutions," Moeti said.

In an interview on Rosemary Barton Livethataired prior to the government announcement onSunday, WHO special adviser Dr. Peter Singersaid it "wouldn't be a surprise" if the variant was in Canada.

He said the United Nations agency believestravel restrictions should be "risk-based and time-limited," part of a comprehensive package, rather than the only measure taken to mitigate the risk of a new variant.

"They're definitely not a silver bullet," he said. Singer argued the international community should not create situations that disincentive countries from being transparent about new variants.

Singer saidthe most importantthings Canadians can do to protect themselves are the same as they have been throughout the COVID-19 pandemic: get vaccinated and follow public health measures.

"This is a call for individuals to raise their guard. There are things individuals can do which help with any variant or any version of this virus, including omicron."

He urged Canada and other countries to redouble their efforts to provide resources to the global vaccination campaign, saying that'sthe best way to stop the spread of omicron and potential future variants.

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Canada's first cases of the omicron coronavirus variant confirmed in Ottawa - CBC.ca

Gov. Phil Murphy received his coronavirus vaccine booster shot Sunday at the Monmouth Medical Center and encouraged other adult residents to get their shots as concerns mount over a new coronavirus variant and rising case numbers.

Murphy, 63, now joins more than 1.23 million people in New Jersey who have received third doses or boosters.

The governor, who recently returned from a three-night Thanksgiving trip to Orlando with his family, also posted photos on social media of his wife, First Lady Tammy Murphy, getting her booster shot and his family holding up their vaccine cards.

Murphy and his wife received their first coronavirus vaccine doses in April as they toured one of the states six vaccine mega-sites in Atlantic City. The couple both received the Pfizer vaccination.

On Sunday, they each received a third dose of the Pfizer vaccination.

Officials are encouraging everyone 18 and older in New Jersey who has received their second dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines six months ago or longer to get a booster shot. Thats after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this month that it opened booster shot eligibility to all adults.

Anyone 18 and older who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was already eligible for a booster two months after the single shot.

More than 6.17 million people who live, work or study in New Jersey a state of about 9.2 million residents have now been fully vaccinated. More than 8 million people in the state have received at least one dose, and more than 1.23 million people have received third doses or boosters.

As of Monday, at least 87,500 children between the ages of 5 and 11 in New Jersey have received vaccine doses since federal authorities approved the Pfizer shots for that age group two weeks ago, according to the state.

Officials are urging all eligible residents receive a vaccine if they have not already, aiming to ward off a winter surge as coronavirus cases rise and holiday travel picks up.

On Sunday, New Jersey reported another 1,599 cases and an additional four deaths. The states seven-day average for new positive tests increased to 1,809, up 10% from a week ago and up 58% from a month ago.

In all, New Jersey, has reported 1,082,586 total confirmed cases out of more than 16 million PCR tests conducted since it announced its first case March 4, 2020. There have also been more than 164,627 positive antigen or rapid tests, which are considered probable cases.

The state of 9.2 million people has reported 28,250 have died from complications related to COVID-19 25,516 confirmed and 2,823 considered probable.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Jackie Roman may be reached at jroman@njadvancemedia.com or on Twitter @JacqueRoman.

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Gov. Murphy got his COVID booster shot and says you should too - nj.com

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- The Virginia Department of Health will be monitoring sewage in various parts of the state in an effort to predict future outbreaks of COVID-19.

The Danville Register & Bee reported Saturday that VDH is deploying up to 25 wastewater monitoring sites across the commonwealth.

That's according to a recent report from the University of Virginia's Biocomplexity Institute, which collaborates with state health officials. The report does not state where those monitoring sites will be. But VDH has been polling utilities to assess their willingness to participate in a sampling program.

Testing sewage can help health officials gauge COVID-19 infection in a community because people who are sick shed the virus in bodily waste, even if they're not showing symptoms. Combined with other programs that monitor COVID-19 infection in communities, the goal is to provide warnings before a surge begins.

This kind of testing of wastewater isn't new. It's been used for other infectious diseases, such as polio, VDH said.

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Virginia will test sewage to help predict COVID-19 outbreaks - WPTV.com

Traders wait at the Bahrain Bourse in Manama, Bahrain, November 8, 2020. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo

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Nov 28 (Reuters) - Most Gulf stock markets fell sharply in early trade on Sunday, with the Saudi index suffering its biggest single-day fall in nearly two years as fears of a potentially vaccine-resistant coronavirus variant rattled investors.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday designated a new COVID-19 variant detected in South Africa as being "of concern" - the fifth variant to be given the designation. read more

Saudi Arabia's benchmark index (.TASI) retreated by 4.4%, dragged down by a 3.4% fall for Al Rajhi Bank (1120.SE) and a 5.3% decline for Saudi National Bank (1180.SE).

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The kingdom has halted flights from and to Malawi, Zambia, Madagascar, Angola, Seychelles, Mauritius And Comoros Islands, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing the state news agency. read more

Dubai's main share index (.DFMGI) tumbled 4.8% for its biggest intraday fall since March 2020, with blue-chip developer Emaar Properties (EMAR.DU) losing 7.9%.

Among other losers, budget airline Air Arabia (AIRA.DU) plunged 7.1%.

In Abu Dhabi, the index (.ADI) dropped 2.3%, hit by a 3.1% fall for First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB.AD), the country's largest lender, and a 3% drop for telecoms company Etisalat (ETISALAT.AD).

The United Arab Emirates has suspended entry for travellers from South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique from Nov. 29 owing to concerns about the new variant of the COVID-19 virus, the state news agency reported on Friday. read more

The latest panedmic developments also sent oil prices, a key catalyst for the Gulf's financial markets, plunging by $10 a barrel on Friday for their largest one-day drop since April 2020. The new variant added to concerns that an oil supply surplus could swell in the first quarter.

The Qatari benchmark (.QSI) declined more than 2% as stocks fell across the board.

On Saturday Qatar Airways said it has banned travellers from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique because of the spread of a new coronavirus variant.

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Reporting by Ateeq Shariff in BengaluruEditing by David Goodman

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Most Gulf bourses slide on fears over COVID-19 variant - Reuters

Winter has a way of bringing out the worst of the coronavirus. Last year, the season saw a record surge that left nearly 250,000 Americans dead and hospitals overwhelmed around the country. This year, we are much better prepared, with effective vaccinesand, soon, powerful antiviralsthat defang the coronavirus, but cases seem to be on the rise again, prompting fears of another big surge.

How bad will it get? We are no longer in the most dangerous phase of the pandemic, but we also have not reached the end. So COVID-19s trajectory over the next few months will depend on three key unknowns: how our immunity holds up, how the virus changes, and how we behave. These unknowns may also play out differently state to state, town to town, but together they will determine what ends up happening this winter.

Here are the basic numbers: The U.S. has fully vaccinated 59 percent of the country and recorded enough cases to account for 14 percent of the population. (Though, given limited testing, those case numbers almost certainly underestimate true infections.) What we dont know is how to put these two numbers together, says Elizabeth Halloran, an epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. What percentage of Americans have immunity against the coronavirusfrom vaccines or infection or both?

This is the key number that will determine the strength of our immunity wall this winter, but its impossible to pin down with the data we have. This uncertainty matters because even a small percentage difference in overall immunity translates to a large number of susceptible people. For example, an additional 5 percent of Americans without immunity is 16.5 million people, and 16.5 million additional infections could mean hundreds of thousands more hospitalizations. Because unvaccinated people tend to cluster geographically and because many hospital intensive-care units run close to capacity even in non-pandemic times, it doesnt take very many sick patients to overwhelm a local health-care system.

Read: Why health-care workers are quitting in droves

Whats happening in Europe, says Ali Ellebedy, an immunologist at Washington University in St. Louis, is also a red sign. Several countries in Western Europe, which are more highly vaccinated than the U.S., are already seeing spikes heading into winter. Cases in Germany, which has vaccinated nearly 70 percent of its population, have increased sharply, overwhelming hospitals and spurring renewed restrictions on the unvaccinated. The U.S. does have a bit more immunity from previous infections than Germany because its had bigger past COVID waves, but it still has plenty of susceptible people.

The strength of immunity also varies from person to person. Immunity from past infection, in particular, can be quite variable. Vaccine-induced immunity tends to be more consistent, but older people and immunocompromised people mount weaker responses. And immunity against infection also clearly wanes over time in everyone, meaning breakthrough infections are becoming more common. Boosters, which are poised to be available to all adults soon, can counteract the waning this winter, though we dont yet know how durable that protection will be in the long term. If the sum of all this immunity is on the higher side, this winter might be relatively gentle; if not, we could be in store for yet another taxing surge.

At the beginning of the pandemic, scientists thought that this coronavirus mutated fairly slowly. Then, in late 2020, a more transmissible Alpha variant came along. And then an even more transmissible Delta variant emerged. In a year, the virus more than doubled its contagiousness. The evolution of this coronavirus may now be slowing, but that doesnt mean its stopped: We should expect the coronavirus to keep changing.

Alpha and Delta were evolutionary winners because they are just so contagious, and the virus could possibly find ways to up its transmissibility even more. But as more people get vaccinated or infected, our collective immunity gives more and more of an edge to variants that can evade the immune system instead. Delta has some of this ability already. In the future, says Sarah Cobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago, I think most fitness improvements are going to come from immune escape.

The Beta and Gamma variants also eroded immune protection, but they werent able to compete with the current Delta variant. There may yet be new variants that can. Whether any of this will happen in time to make a difference this winter is impossible to know, but it will happen eventually. This is just how evolution works. Other coronaviruses that cause the common cold also change every yearas does the flu. The viruses are always causing reinfections, but each reinfection also refreshes the immune systems memory.

Read: The coronavirus could get worse

A new variant could change the pandemic trajectory again this winter, but its not likely to reset the pandemic clock back to March 2020. We might end up with a variant that causes more breakthrough infections or reinfections, but our immune systems wont be totally fooled.

The coronavirus doesnt hop on planes, drive across state lines, or attend holiday parties. We do. COVID-19 spreads when we spread it, and predicting what people will do has been one of the biggest challenges of modeling the pandemic. Were constantly surprised when things are messier and weirder, says Jon Zelner, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan.

The Delta wave in the Deep South over the summer, for example, ebbed in the late summer and early fall even though many COVID restrictions didnt come back. If anything, you might have expected cases to rise at that moment, because schools full of unmasked and unvaccinated children were reopening. So what happened? One possible explanation is that people became more careful with masking and social distancing as they saw cases rising around them. More people in the South did get vaccinated, though the rates still lag behind those in the highly vaccinated Northeast. Are surges self-limiting because people are modifying their behavior in response to recent surges? Cobey says. Thats just a really open question. Weather may also drive behavior; as temperatures cooled down in the South, people might have spent more time outdoors.

Another possible factor in ending the summer surge is that the virus may have simply infected everyone it could find at the timebut that is not the same as saying it has infected everyone in those states. The coronavirus doesnt spread evenly across a region, like ink through water. Instead, it has to travel along networks of connection between people. COVID-19 can run through an entire household or workplace, but it cant jump to the next one unless people are moving in between them. By sheer chance, the coronavirus may find some pockets of susceptible people but not others in any given wave. Theres a kind of randomness to it, Zelner says. This winter, we should expect a local flare-up every time the virus finds a pocket of susceptibility. But its hard to predict exactly when and where that will happen. The countrys current COVID hot spots are Michigan, Minnesota, and New Mexico, three states with no obvious connection among them.

Read: America has lost the plot on COVID

By winters end, the U.S. will emerge with more immunity than it has noweither through infection or, much preferable, through vaccinating more people. To me, this winter is the last stand, Zelner says. However these three unknowns play out this winter, COVID will eventually begin to fade as a disruptive force in our lives as it becomes endemic. Were not quite there yet, but our second pandemic winter will bring us one step closer.

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Three Unknowns Will Define COVID-19 This Winter - The Atlantic