(Reuters) – The United States authorised Pfizer’s antiviral COVID-19 pill for people ages 12 and older at risk of severe illness, the first oral and at-home treatment, while Americans face a second Christmas of upended holiday plans as cases surge.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
AMERICAS
* Americans vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 can be with family over the holidays, but attending large gatherings is not safe, even for those who received a booster dose, top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said.
* Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said seven cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant have been detected in the South American country.
* Canada will temporarily expand support programs to help people and businesses hit by Omicron.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* The northwestern Chinese city of Xian has imposed tight curbs on outbound travel and ordinary commuting within the city as a new outbreak sees community cases tick higher, but stopped short of a full-scale lockdown as seen in Wuhan last year.
* Australia’s two most populous states re-introduced COVID-19 curbs as daily infections hit their highest.
* Japan is not considering an immediate change to current restrictions, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said, a day after community transmission of the Omicron variant was discovered in the country.
* The Philippines approved emergency use of Merck’s COVID-19 treatment pill for adult patients at risk of developing severe illness.
EUROPE
* Spain will make it compulsory to wear a face mask outdoors again as part of a package aimed at containing the Omicron variant.
* Northern Ireland ordered the closure of nightclubs from Sunday after reporting an all-time high of 3,231 COVID-19 cases.
* France has cancelled its order for Merck’s COVID-19 antiviral drug following disappointing trial data and hopes instead to receive Pfizer’s competing drug before the end of January.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* A South African study suggests reduced risks of hospitalisation and severe disease in people infected with the Omicron variant versus the Delta one, though the authors say some of that is likely due to high population immunity.
* The risk of needing to stay in hospital for patients with the Omicron variant is 40% to 45% lower than for patients with the Delta variant, according to research by London’s Imperial College.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* A global share rally continued in Asian trading on Thursday and the safe haven dollar slid as markets welcomed signs that the Omicron variant might be less severe than feared, as well as robust U.S. economic data. [MKTS/GLOB]
* Japan’s government is set to unveil its largest annual budget on Friday with $943 billion in spending for the fiscal year beginning next April, further straining the industrial world’s heaviest debt, a draft plan seen by Reuters showed.
(Compiled by Devika Syamnath and Aditya Soni; Edited by Maju Samuel and Shounak Dasgupta)
