South Africa has lifted overnight curfew rules, with officials saying the country may have passed the peak of its fourth wave of Covid-19 infections. A government statement said the Omicron variant, while highly transmissible, had seen lower hospitalisation rates than previous waves.

There had been a marginal increase in the number of deaths, it added. The variant – first reported by South Africa last month – is spreading fast elsewhere leading to widespread curbs.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of a “tsunami” of infections from Delta and Omicron variants that could overwhelm health systems. But in South Africa, a statement released after a special cabinet meeting said cases and hospital admission rates had dropped in almost all provinces across the country.

For the week ending 25 December 2021, the number of confirmed infections stood at 89,781 – down from 127,753 the week before.

The first people in the UK are in hospital with Omicron infections, Nadhim Zahawi has said. The new variant of coronavirus now accounts for a third of cases in London, the education secretary said. With two doses of a vaccine “not enough” Mr Zahawi encouraged people to get a booster jab – those aged 30 and over are eligible to do so from Monday. As of Sunday, there have been 3,137 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant in the UK.

But the true number is likely to be far higher. There were 48,854 new positive Covid cases reported across the UK on Sunday – there have been 360,480 cases in the last seven days. Scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) have warned that the UK will face a substantial wave of Omicron infections without further restrictions beyond the Plan B measures announced last week.

These include recommending people work from home if they can, expanding mask-wearing rules and introducing Covid passes for entry to some venues – parliament will vote on the changes on Tuesday. People in England with two or more jabs who are close contacts of Covid cases will be told to take daily lateral flow tests for seven days from Tuesday.

It means people in close contact with suspected or confirmed Omicron variant cases no longer need to self-isolate.

The first real world data showing the coronavirus variant Omicron may evade some of our immunity has been reported by scientists in South Africa. Scientists have detected a surge in the number of people catching Covid multiple times. It is a rapid analysis and not definitive, but fits with concern about the mutations the variant possesses.

It is also not clear what this means for the protection given by vaccines. A week after the variant was named Omicron, the world is still scrambling to understand the true threat posed by the variant. But now the first pieces of a large and complex puzzle are starting to be assembled. We already know the variant is heavily mutated and officials in South Africa have warned it is leading to a surge in cases there.

The latest piece of the jigsaw is understanding how likely somebody who has already had Covid is likely to catch Omicron. It has also been detected in more than 30 countries. Scientists have analysed nearly 36,000 suspected re-infections in South Africa to look for any changes to re-infection rates (catching it twice or more) throughout the pandemic.

They showed there was no surge in the risk of re-infection during either the Beta or Delta waves. This is despite laboratory studies suggesting those variants had the potential to evade some immunity.

However, they are now detecting a spike in re-infections. They have not tested each patient to prove it is Omicron, but they say the timing suggests the variant is the driving force.

Children as young as five years old have been attending hospital emergency departments for self-harm, depression and suicidal thoughts.

That is according to information received from the Western Health Trust in N Ireland.

It also revealed an 11% rise during the first year of the pandemic, compared to the year before, in those aged 18 and under attending emergency departments for serious mental health issues.

The figures relate to Altnagelvin, South West Acute and Omagh Hospitals.

Among those was a five-year-old referred by a GP for “depression and suicidal thoughts” and a suicidal nine-year-old brought in by police.

There were 473 children and young people who arrived at the emergency departments in the year prior to the pandemic, including 67 children aged 14 and under.

This had risen to 527 in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic between March 2020 and February 2021, with 102 of them aged 14 and under.

Although these figures take into account the first twelve months of the pandemic for annual comparison purposes, an upward trend has continued with the most recent figures given up until the end of August this year.

Nearly 10,000 more people than usual have died in the past four months from non-Covid reasons, as experts called for an urgent government inquiry into whether the deaths were preventable.

Fears are growing that NHS delays at the height of the pandemic left large numbers of people with previously treatable conditions suffering illnesses that have now become fatal.

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that England and Wales registered 20,823 more deaths than the five-year average in the past 18 weeks. Only 11,531 deaths involved Covid.

It means that 9,292 deaths – 45 per cent – were not linked to the pandemic.

‘We urgently need to understand what’s going wrong’
Professor Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, said: “I’m calling for an urgent investigation.

“If you look at where the excess is happening, it’s in conditions like ischemic heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver and diabetes, all which are potentially reversible.

Samedaydoctor was interviewed about this topic. Frontline NHS staff in England will have to be fully vaccinated against Covid, the government is expected to announce later. A deadline will be set for next spring to give unvaccinated staff time to get both doses, Whitehall sources told the BBC.
Between 80,000 and 100,000 NHS workers in England were unvaccinated, said Chris Hopson, head of NHS Providers. Thursday is the deadline for care home workers in England to get vaccinated.

The government’s decision follows a consultation which began in September and considered whether both the Covid and flu jabs should be compulsory for frontline NHS and care workers. The BBC understands that the flu vaccine will not be made mandatory and there will be exemptions for the Covid vaccine requirement for medical reasons. Each of the four UK nations makes its own decisions on the issue.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have not made any proposals to make Covid jabs compulsory for NHS workers or care home staff.

Last month, Health Secretary Sajid Javid told the BBC he was leaning towards compulsory vaccination for NHS staff in England.

He said he did not want the NHS to lose any staff, but said the experience in the social care sector was that the numbers taking up the vaccine “absolutely surged” after it was made compulsory.

We are publishing in full an article by Christopher Snowden in the Tepegraph as we agree with the sentiments-see below

After predicting that 100,000 Covid cases a day were “almost inevitable” if the Government went ahead with “freedom day” in England, Professor Neil Ferguson later admitted that he had got it wrong, but his words were telling. “I’m quite happy to be wrong if it’s wrong in the right direction,” he said.

He must be a happy man because he and his fellow modellers could hardly have been more wrong this year. Time and again, they produce a range of scenarios with such broad margins of error that almost any outcome short of the dead rising from their graves seems to be covered. And yet they still manage to be wrong – and always wrong in the same direction. Always too pessimistic.

Remember when reopening the schools in March was going to lead to a surge in infections? Didn’t happen. Remember the claim that October would see 7,000 Covid-related hospital admissions a day in England unless the Government brought in a “basket of measures”? Admittedly, 7,000 was at the top end of their projections and Sage said it was “highly unlikely”, but even their most optimistic scenario projected 2,000 admissions per day. In the end, October came and went without admissions ever reaching 1,000.

Back in February, modellers at Warwick University projected at least 1,000 deaths a day if the Government removed all restrictions in July. Even their “best we can manage” scenario – in which “freedom day” was delayed until the start of September – led to 750 deaths a day. In reality, there hasn’t been a day since March when it reached 150.

It is not just the modellers. When the infection rate plummeted in July, ITV’s political editor Robert Peston claimed to have been told by a government source that people who are reinfected with the virus are not included in the daily case numbers. This, he said, was “profoundly troubling” and “undermines confidence” in the idea that cases were tumbling. After breezily tweeting this on a Sunday morning, he proceeded to ignore all replies from experts telling him that reinfections make up less than one per cent of the total.

There was no apology because there was no threat of comeuppance. The people who falsely claimed that herd immunity had been reached last summer became laughing stocks, but those who have been consistently “wrong in the right direction” (i.e. pro-lockdown) have lost no status whatsoever. The Today programme still has them on speed dial.

It is not as if pessimism comes without consequences. Ferguson’s prediction led Keir Starmer to oppose the lifting of restrictions in July. So-called Independent Sage called for the reintroduction of Step 2 of the roadmap (no meeting indoors). Thankfully, the Government ignored these demands, but what if it hadn’t? It would have cost the economy billions and ruined what was left of the summer.

With the same people now lobbying to ruin the winter, let’s keep their track record in mind. The “direction” in which they erred isn’t important. What matters is that they were wrong.

Samedaydoctor has been interviewed on GB News and Talk Radio about ongoing health issues including the possibility of a strike by NHS GP’s.

Furthermore a member of the group of scientists advising the government on coronavirus has stepped down from the role. Sir Jeremy Farrar has been part of the independent Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) since the start of the pandemic. He said he had left at the end of October so he could focus on his work as director of medical charity the Wellcome Trust.

Sir Jeremy also said Sage scientists had often had to work “under huge pressure” to provide “vital evidence, and independent, expert, transparent advice”. In his statement confirming he had left Sage, he said: “The Covid-19 crisis is a long way from over, with the global situation deeply troubling.

“The high levels of transmission seen in the UK remain concerning, but I stepped down as a participant of Sage knowing ministers had been provided with most of the key science advice needed over the winter months.”

The UK recorded 33,865 Covid cases on Tuesday, with the total number of cases in the past seven days down 10.4% on the previous week.

Deaths are still rising, with 293 deaths within 28 days of a positive test reported.

This outraged private GP reveals to LBC that government enforced bureaucracy means “putting a swab down someone’s throat” is costing clinics thousands of pounds.

These “totally discriminatory” measures are making it almost impossible for private clinics to operate. Dr Laurence Gerlis from Same Day Doctor, a chain of private GP clinics, said: “Private clinics have been accused of profiteering over this… but the government decided that swabbing for PCR testing had to be regulated by another body called UKAS, and it’s cost us in the region of £30,000 so far because we haven’t been finally approved.

“We applied 7 months ago, and the process is still ongoing and we still haven’t been fully approved. We’re allowed to continue to do it because the legislation doesn’t kick in till August 31st, and it’s made our lives absolute hell.”

Dr Gerlis then called the rules “totally discriminatory”, claiming one of his doctors who also works in the NHS can do swabbing there, but not in their private clinic.

Nick then replied: “Thousands of mums and dads test their kids before school, but they’re allowed to put swabs in their kids’ mouths, but you have to spend thousands of pounds to do it?” “The company selling them doesn’t have to be registered with UKAS,” Dr Gerlis said.

“It’s only I, as a doctor, putting this swab into someone’s throat – which is something I’ve trained to do and done for years for other conditions.

“I’m now being forced to spend this money to register with UKAS and jump through bureaucratic hoops, the likes of which I’ve never experienced before.”

Dr Gerlis then said ‘Grenfell tower’ was quoted in his conversations with UKAS over the importance of him registering to swab, which he found ‘hugely insulting.’

“It’s more about power than money,” Dr Gerlis said.

“They love being able to regulate and interfere with what’s going on in our lives. I don’t expect anyone to have sympathy for private doctors, we never get any, but really this is horrific.”

We discussed the proposal on TV’s GB News whether sugar and salt should be taxed and vegetables prescribed by the NHS, as an independent review of the food we eat has suggested.

The report, led by businessman Henry Dimbleby, says taxes raised could extend free school meal provision and support better diets among the poorest.

England’s National Food Strategy also wants GPs to try prescribing fruit and vegetables to encourage healthy eating.

The food industry warned new taxes could increase food prices.

Ian Wright, of the Food and Drink Federation, which represents manufacturers, said: “Obesity and food is very much about poverty, and we need measures to tackle poverty and to help people to make choices they need to make.”

The government has promised to respond with proposals for future laws within six months.
The review, commissioned by the government in 2019, says historic reforms of the food system are needed to protect the NHS, improve the health of the nation and save the environment.

The new taxes would be applied to wholesale sugar and salt purchased by manufacturers, which could in turn raise some prices on shelves.

But Mr Dimbleby said: “We do not actually believe that for most things it will hike the price – what it will do is it will reformulate, it will make people take sugar and salt out.”

The review describes the Covid-19 pandemic as a “painful reality check” that has revealed the scale of food-related ill-health.

“Our high obesity rate has been a major factor in the UK’s tragically high death rate,” said Mr Dimbleby, who co-founded the fast food chain Leon.