World News in Brief: December 3

Asia-Pacific countries should boost their healthcare capacity and fully vaccinate their people to prepare for a surge in COVID-19 cases fuelled by the Omicron variant, officials at the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

Australia on Friday reported its first community transmission of the new Omicron coronavirus variant, but authorities held steady on a plan to reopen the economy amid hopes it would prove to be milder than previous strains.
Australia on Friday reported its first community transmission of the new Omicron coronavirus variant, but authorities held steady on a plan to reopen the economy amid hopes it would prove to be milder than previous strains.

* The World Health Organization (WHO) urged countries to boost healthcare capacity and vaccinate their people to fight a surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant, saying that travel curbs could buy time but alone were not the answer.

* Makers of COVID-19 vaccines should gear up for the "likelihood" of needing to adjust their products to protect against the Omicron variant, the World Health Organization's (WHO) spokesperson said on Friday.

* Work is under way to arrange a video call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden, the Kremlin said on Friday, a day after their top diplomats met to discuss the Ukraine crisis.

* Belarus said it would retaliate after the United States and its allies imposed sanctions against dozens of individuals and entities there, and it complained that its economy was facing unprecedented external pressure.

* The seventh round of indirect talks between Iran and the United States on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which began this week, will end on Friday with a formal meeting of the remaining parties to the deal, European and Iranian officials said.

* India expects the Omicron variant of coronavirus to cause less severe disease, the health ministry said on Friday, thanks to vaccinations and high prior exposure to the Delta variant that infected nearly 70% of the population by July.

* The new Omicron variant of the coronavirus poses a threefold higher risk of reinfection than the currently dominant Delta variant and the Beta strain, a group of South African health bodies said.

* The European Union's public health agency said the Omicron variant could be responsible for more than half of all infections in Europe within a few months, but no cases of severe disease had yet been identified in the region.

* Britain recorded 53,945 new cases, the highest daily figure since July 17, government figures showed, as the dominant Delta variant spreads and measures come in to curb the Omicron variant.

* France reported its first two cases of the Omicron variant, as the government's top scientific adviser said it could become dominant in the country by the end of January.

* New York has confirmed five cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant, its governor said on Thursday, bringing to five the number of US states having detected the variant, with 10 reported infections nationwide.

* The European Union's drug regulator said it had started a rolling review of the inactivated-virus COVID-19 vaccine from French biotech firm Valneva, weeks after the EU signed a deal with the company for supplies of the shot.

* South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla said on Friday the country could manage the fourth COVID-19 wave of infections driven by the Omicron variant without invoking stricter lockdown restrictions.

* Republic of Korea announced on Friday that people visiting restaurants and cinemas and other public spaces will have to show vaccine passes, amid a surge in COVID-19 infections and six confirmed cases of the Omicron variant.

* The Swiss cantons of Geneva and Vaud have placed 2,000 people, most of them children, into quarantine after two cases of the Omicron variant were detected at an international school.

* Nepal will ban the entry of travellers who have been in eight African countries and Hong Kong (China) to curb the spread of the new Omicron coronavirus variant.

* Germany's BioNTech should be able to adapt its coronavirus vaccine relatively quickly in response to the Omicron variant, its CEO Ugur Sahin said, adding that despite the mutation shots should continue to protect people against severe disease.

* COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna that use mRNA technology provide the biggest boost to antibody levels when given 10-12 weeks after the second dose, a British study has found.

* Novavax Inc said it could begin commercial manufacturing of a COVID-19 vaccine tailored for the Omicron coronavirus variant in January, while it tests whether or not its current vaccine works against the variant.

* US employers likely stepped up hiring in November as they scrambled to meet strong demand for goods and services, giving the economy a strong boost as another challenging year draws to a close, though worker shortages remained a constraint.

* A 17-billion-euro (19.23 billion USD) French arms deal with the United Arab Emirates will secure the industrial supply chain for France's Rafale warplane for the next decade and directly support 7,000 domestic jobs, a French defence ministry official said.

* NASA chief Bill Nelson will visit Russia in the first half of 2022 to discuss further cooperation on the International Space Station (ISS), the Interfax news agency reported on Friday, citing Russia's space agency Roscosmos.

* Croatia's tourist facilities face a shortage of up to one-third of their workforce next year, head of the national association of biggest tourist firms Veljko Ostojic said on Friday.

* Sri Lanka suffered a power outage across large parts of the island on Friday, local media reported, as state power workers scrambled to get a key transmission line operational.

* An attack by Islamic State militants on a village in northern Iraq on Friday killed three villagers and 10 Kurdish soldiers, officials in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region said.

Reuters