Covid news – live: Delta and Omicron variants are driving ‘tsunami of cases’, WHO chief says

World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned of a “tsunami” of Covid-19 cases due to the combination of Delta and Omicron variants of the coronavirus disease.

Speaking at an online news conference on Wednesday Dr Tedros said, “I’m highly concerned that Omicron, being more transmissible [and] circulating at the same time as Delta, is leading to a tsunami of cases.”

With record surges in cases across Europe and US over the past week, the WHO’s director-general added that, “This is and will continue to put immense pressure on exhausted health workers, and health systems on the brink of collapse.”

Reuters news agency reported that around 900,000 cases are being reported everyday from across the world.

Dr Tedros also urged “everyone to make a New Year’s resolution to get behind the campaign to vaccinate 70%” of the world by mid-2022.

The Independent’s Renju Jose and Crispian Balmer explain what is driving high infection rates around the world here:

The government has been accused of complacency after Labour analysis found that dedicated anti-vaccination groups on social media were continuing to pump out disinformation about Covid.

Labour said the closure of the Counter Disinformation Forum, after a six-month trial, meant more lives were being lost and pressure put on the NHS.

Sir Keir Starmer’s party has called for emergency legislation to criminalise companies that do not act to stamp out anti-vaccination content, and is also accusing ministers of failing to act strongly enough on the issue.

It comes as Thames Valley Police appealed for information over an anti-vaccination protest at a vaccine centre in Milton Keynes on Wednesday. Tory MP for Milton Keynes North Ben Everitt said of the protest on Twitter: “What a bunch of dickheads. The staff and volunteers at our vax centres do an amazing job. Nobody deserves this at work.”

Labour’s shadow culture secretary, Lucy Powell, said the government needed to “stand up to big tech companies, ignore their excuses, and introduce financial and criminal penalties for failures that lead to serious harm”.

The party said new analysis showed Facebook was still hosting accounts belonging to the Disinformation Dozen, the 12 anti-vaxxers responsible for up to 65 per cent of anti-vaccine content on Facebook and Twitter.

A government spokesperson told the PA news agency that incoming “tough new online safety laws” would force companies doing the above to take action.

Widening access to coronavirus testing and increasing oxygen supplies for countries in need will be backed by £10m of emergency aid, the foreign secretary has announced.

Liz Truss said there will be a particular focus on Africa, with funding to help tackle the spread of new variants, reports Geraldine Scott.

It was also revealed some 30 million doses of Covid jabs had been donated by the UK internationally, as the one-year anniversary of the approval of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine was marked.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has moved to revise its model estimating the spread of different variants of Covid-19 in the US to significantly reduce the share of infections caused by the Omicron variant.

Previous charts on the CDC’s website showed over the weekend that Omicron was estimated to be responsible for roughly 73 per cent of cases across the US in the data from 18 December. Those estimates changed on Tuesday, when CDC officials updated the graph and cut that number significantly to just 22.5 per cent.

The preceding Delta variant was credited with causing roughly 77 per cent of US infections, reports John Bowden.

An epidemiologist at the UK Health Security Agency has warned people to expect a “big number” on Thursday’s daily Covid death statistics, due to the backlog caused by Christmas.

The emergence of Omicron is causing concern around the world, not least because it is thought to be highly transmissible and because the 32 mutations of its spike protein suggest it might be able to resist current vaccines.

Although many scientists believe the new variant is milder than previous mutations, it remains unclear how many of the record number of people infected will end up in hospital, severely ill or dying, report Joe Sommerlad and Eleanor Sly.

Prior to Christmas, Boris Johnson said that no further restrictions would be introduced ahead of the holiday, explaining that “that people could go ahead with their plans”. Since then, though, the rest of the UK has enforced stricter measures and Omicron cases and hospitalisations have increased.

Ireland reported 16,428 new cases of Covid on Wednesday, making it the latest country to smash its highest record since the pandemic began.

As of 8am on Wednesday, 568 people were in hospital with the virus, 93 of whom are in intensive care.

In a statement, Ireland’s chief medical officer Tony Holohan said: “All of the latest epidemiological indicators are a cause of concern.

“Given the very high levels of transmission nationwide, every individual should consider themselves potentially infectious, and strictly adhere to the public health measures.”

It comes as Leo Varadkar, the tánaiste of Ireland, said that infections fuelled by the Omicron variant will remain very high for the “next few days” but should peak “in the next week or so”.