New strain: Britons need negative test to enter US

Japan, Switzerland join growing list of nations to have found their first cases of the new Covid-19 variant

LONDON/WASHINGTON: UK travellers are facing more restrictions due to a new variant of the Covid-19 virus spreading within the country, with America insisting that US-bound Britons must have a negative Covid-19 test within 72 hours of departing the United Kingdom. Russia will impose a two-week quarantine on travellers arriving from the UK, and Hong Kong extended its mandatory quarantine for most visitors to three weeks.

Japan, Germany and Switzerland joined a growing number of countries that have identified their first cases of the coronavirus variant that has emerged in the UK, which a study showed is 56% more transmissible than other strains, although there’s no clear evidence it results in more severe cases of the disease.

The study was published on Wednesday by the Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropfrom ical Medicine.

Japan confirmed its first cases of the new strain, saying the five people infected with it had travelled from the UK and the infections were confirmed at two separate airports in Japan. In Switzerland,

the new strain was found in positive tests of two people who live in the UK and travelled to Switzerland.

Cases and deaths in Africa may be higher than official figures, according to researchers

Boston University and the University of Zambia, who tested corpses for the virus in the biggest referral hospital in the Zambian capital of Lusaka. The disease was detected in nearly one in five of the 364 bodies tested, according to a study published on medRxiv.

Record fatalities in LA

The Greater Los Angeles area, which has the highest number of cases and deaths in the US, has seen record fatalities and hospitalisations. “A person now dies every 10 minutes in LA County from Covid-19,” said Barbara Ferrer, the county’s director of public health. The county added 148 deaths, taking the total to 9,299, while cases rose by 13,678 to 677,299 - or one in 15 people.

Pope Francis has appealed to nations to ensure Covid-19 vaccines for all. In his Christmas Day message on Friday, he urged that the vulnerable and the needy be first in line. Francis said the laws of the markets and patents can’t come before the “laws of love and health of humanity”.

Maria Romero, who is said to be suffering from ‘long Covid’, weeps after receiving free groceries, in Stamford, Connecticut, US.