JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister says preliminary data on the fourth vaccine dose shows that it safely brings about a five-fold increase in antibodies that battle the coronavirus.
Naftali Bennett spoke Tuesday during a visit to the Sheba Medical Center, where Israel launched a trial of a second booster early last week. It is now offering fourth doses of the Pfizer vaccine to people over 60 years old and those with weakened immune systems, the first country to do so.
Bennett says initial results show the fourth dose is as safe as the the third dose, which has already been given to almost half of Israel’s population of nearly 9.5 million.
He says the increase in antibodies indicates “a very high likelihood that the fourth dose will protect vaccinated people to a great degree, against infection to some degree and against severe symptoms.”
Israel was among the first countries to roll out the vaccine a year ago and began offering booster shots over the summer. It still saw a sharp rise of infections driven by the delta variant, and is seeing another wave fueled by omicron.
Bennett says Israel remains at the “forefront” of coronavirus research, gathering and sharing data that helps the rest of the world combat the pandemic.
The Health Ministry is reporting more than 46,000 active cases, including 117 seriously ill patients. At least 8,247 people have died in Israel from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic nearly two years ago.
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ATHENS, Greece — Authorities in Greece have introduced new price limits for COVID-19 testing following a surge in demand due to a steep rise in infections blamed on the omicron variant.
The country’s trade ministry said Tuesday that PCR tests at private facilities will be priced at a maximum of 47 euros ($53), including a 12-euro handling fee. The previous cap had been set at 60 euros ($68).
New confirmed infections have risen to record levels in the past week, as health officials say omicron is now dominating new cases.
The center-right government recently expanded its testing program, with additional home kits made available for free, but says it does not have the capacity to implement a request by the country’s left-wing opposition to reimburse private PCR tests.
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MADRID — Spanish officials say the country’s schools and universities will return to classes as normal next week.
Health Minister Carolina Darias says Spain’s central and regional governments unanimously agreed Tuesday on sticking with in-person teaching.
Darias told a press conference that Spain’s relatively high vaccination rates meant that during a recent surge in COVID-19 cases due to the omicron variant not so many people were falling seriously ill as in previous peaks.
Education Minister Pilar Alegría says pandemic protocols will remain in place. That means students have to wear face masks and regularly sanitize their hands, while classrooms must be properly ventilated.
Schools reopen from Monday. Spanish universities are holding exams and won’t return to teaching until next month.
BERLIN - Germany has relaxed restrictions on travel from the U.K., South Africa and seven other southern African countries that were imposed following the emergence of the new omicron coronavirus variant.
The nine nations were removed Tuesday from Germany’s list of “virus variant areas.” Airlines and others are restricted largely to transporting German citizens and residents from countries on that list. All arrivals must self-isolate for 14 days, regardless of vaccination status.
Germany’s national disease control center had announced on Thursday that it planned to downgrade the countries’ risk status but said at the time that “short-term changes” were possible.
They have now been added to Germany’s list of “high-risk areas,” which carries much less onerous restrictions. People arriving from such areas who either haven’t recovered recently or been fully vaccinated have to self-isolate for 10 days, which can be cut to five with a negative test.
Omicron is advancing in Germany but authorities say official statistics currently show a very incomplete picture because of patchy testing and reporting over the holiday period.
The disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, said Tuesday that 30,561 new coronavirus cases were reported over the past 24 hours, over 9,000 more than a week earlier. The officially recorded infection rate was 239.9 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past week. The health minister has said the real rate is probably two or three times higher.
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NEW DELHI, India — Authorities in India's capital have imposed a weekend stay-at-home order because of a surge in coronavirus infections triggered by the omicron variant.
Residents must remain at home this Saturday and Sunday except to obtain essentials such as food or medicine, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said. All government workers except for those providing essential services will work from home. He emphasized, however, that very few people were extremely sick, with 124 people requiring oxygen support and seven on ventilators.
The capital recorded over 4,000 new COVID-19 cases on Monday and its test positivity rate surged to 6.5%. A week earlier, the capital detected 300 infections and the test positivity rate was less than 1%.
Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said he has tested positive for the virus and has mild symptoms.
The reported number of infections do not accurately reflect the true spread of the virus because it only includes recorded cases.
Cases are increasing in most parts of India. The northeastern state of Mizoram has a test positivity rate of over 11% -- the highest in India. That is followed by the eastern West Bengal state, which has a test positivity rate of over 9%.
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SYDNEY - New virus cases in Australia surged to record levels on Tuesday, increasing the strain on hospitals and testing centers across the country.
In New South Wales, Australia’s most-populous state, 23,131 new cases were reported, an increase on the record of 22,577 cases on New Year’s Day. There were 1,344 people in hospitals, up 140 on the previous day and 78 more than the record previously set in late September. The new cases were detected from 83,376 tests, a positivity rate of 28%.
Victoria state reported 14,020 cases on Tuesday, eclipsing the record of 8,577 set on Monday. There were 516 people in hospitals, including 108 in intensive care.
The numbers do not necessarily reflect the true spread of the virus as they only include the number of recorded cases.
The new numbers, however, confirm that Australia has passed the milestone of 500,000 COVID-19 cases.
New South Wales Chief Medical Officer Kerry Chant on Monday urged people not to seek hospital treatment unless absolutely necessary.
“It is important that we all play our part in not placing unnecessary burden on the health system,” she said.
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PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon reported more than 9,700 new cases of COVID-19 from the holiday weekend on Monday and smashed a previous record for weekly coronavirus cases with an average of about 2,400 new daily cases as the omicron variant took hold.
The state also hit a single-day high for new cases on Thursday, with 3,534 confirmed or presumptive infections.
The Oregon Health Authority says 18.2% of COVID-19 tests administered over the long weekend were positive for the virus, the highest rate to date.
Hospitalizations, however, hovered at 498 people, less than half the number at the previous peak. Eleven deaths were reported.
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JACKSON, Miss. — Hospitalizations for COVID-19 continue rising rapidly in Mississippi as new cases proliferate.
The state Health Department reported that 695 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were hospitalized Sunday. That is up from 265 hospitalized two weeks earlier, on Dec. 19.
The department also reported Monday that 17,525 new cases of the virus were confirmed in the state from Thursday through Sunday.
These are some of the highest numbers in months.
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TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas has reported a record seven-day average for new confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases.
State health department data released Monday showed that Kansas reported an average of 3,134 new COVID-19 cases a day for the seven days ending Monday. That’s 13% higher than the previous record of 2,767 cases per day for the seven days ending Nov. 18, 2020.
Kansas has now reported more than 534,000 cases for the pandemic or more than one for every six of its 2.9 million residents.
The state also averaged 38 new COVID-19 hospitalizations and 11 new reported deaths a day for the seven days ending Monday. The new numbers came as the state starts to see reports of the omicron variant spreading.
While the average for new hospitalizations isn’t a record, hospitals are still under stress, both because of new patients and infections among employees.
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PHOENIX — Arizona health officials on Monday reported the highest number of new COVID-19 cases in a year.
The 14,192 new cases were the most ever tallied in a day except for Jan. 3, 2020, when more than 17,000 cases were counted.
The state Health Services Department said the new case count was boosted by lower than normal reporting on Sunday, when just 701 new cases were reported. However, the state said there has been a steep upward trend of cases in recent days.
According to Johns Hopkins University data, the seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Arizona has risen sharply over the past two weeks from 2,945 new cases per day on Dec. 18 to 5,051 new cases per day on Jan. 1.
The state reported no new deaths on Monday and just one on Sunday, bringing the total number of people who died from the virus in Arizona since the pandemic began in early 2020 to 24,355.
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WASHINGTON — Congress’ top doctor urged lawmakers on Monday to move to a “maximal telework posture,” citing surging numbers of COVID-19 cases at the Capitol that he said are mostly breakthrough infections of people already vaccinated.
The seven-day average rate of infection at the Capitol’s testing center has risen from less than 1% to more than 13%, Brian P. Monahan, the attending physician, wrote in a letter to congressional leaders obtained by The Associated Press.
Monahan said there has been “an unprecedented number of cases in the Capitol community affecting hundreds of individuals.” In what he said was limited sampling as of Dec. 15, about 61% of the cases were the new, highly contagious omicron variant while 38% were the delta variant.
Providing no figure, he said “most” of the cases are breakthroughs.
While such cases have not led to any deaths or hospitalizations among vaccinated lawmakers or congressional staff, Monahan said even mild infections can lead to six to 12 months of “long COVID.” A “reasonable estimate” is that 6% to 10% of cases could end up that way, he added.
Monahan urged congressional offices to “reduce in-person meetings and in-office activities to the maximum extent possible.”
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MISSION, Kan. — One of Kansas’ largest hospitals is straining to treat an influx of COVID-19 patients even as the surging virus sidelines hundreds of doctors and nurses.
At the University of Kansas Hospital, more than 500 employees out of a staff of more than 13,000 are sick or awaiting test results, said Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer at University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City, Kansas, during a media call Monday.
The illnesses come as the hospital is treating 108 COVID-19 patients, up from 40 on Dec. 1.
“We’ve had to scale back on some elective surgeries and clinics and things like that and all hospitals in our area are having to take similar measures because you’ve got to keep your staff safe. You may not have quite enough people to be able to do all the work,” Stites said.
He said vaccination would have prevented all but a handful of the COVID-19 patients from being hospitalized, freeing up beds for other patients.
“I think what we have to remember is that COVID-19, when you’re unvaccinated, just doesn’t affect the unvaccinated,” Stites said. “It affects everyone because it takes the hospitalizations and it fills up the hospital so much and staff get so sick that it means we don’t have enough people here to take care of everybody, which means we have to scale things back. And that’s the level we’re all at.”
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PARIS — France’s lower house of parliament is voting Monday on a government plan to require full vaccination to enter restaurants, tourist sites, sports facilities and other venues.
Critics, primarily from the far right and far left, denounced it as discriminatory, and lambasted the government for repeated missteps throughout the pandemic. They also argued it would be ineffective amid record infections across France driven by the omicron variant.
The government says the vaccine pass is the best way to protect hospitals from a surge in critically ill patients, without resorting to an economically crippling lockdown. Health Minister Olivier Veran told the chamber that the draft law wasn’t intended to restrict individual liberties, and he noted that most virus patients in French ICUs are unvaccinated.
Lawmakers have proposed hundreds of amendments to the bill, which goes later this week to the Senate. President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party has a majority in the lower house, which has the final say on the bill. The government wants it to enter force Jan. 15.
Under the government’s draft, the vaccine pass would also be required on domestic flights and inter-regional trains and buses, cinemas and theaters.
Currently unvaccinated people can get the “health pass” required to enter such sites if they test negative for the virus or recently recovered. More than 90% of French adults are vaccinated, but several million have not been inoculated.
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TORONTO — All schools in Canada’s most populous province will be shut down and move to online learning because of a record number of coronavirus infections fueled by the ultra-contagious omicron variant, Ontario’s premier announced Monday.
Premier Doug Ford also announced the closure of indoor dining. Gyms and cinemas will also close. Ontario is seeing record new infections and there are concerns about hospital capacity.
“I know online learning is not ideal,” Ford said. “The fact is omicron spreads like wildfire.”
The reopening of schools has been delayed until at least Jan. 17. Just last week, the government announced schools would open on Wednesday.
Schools shut down for in-person learning last April because of record cases driven by the delta variant but had since resumed. Hospitals have also been told to pause all non-urgent surgeries and procedures in order to preserve critical care.
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LISBON, Portugal — A senior Portuguese health official says almost 90% of COVID-19 patients in intensive care have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Deputy Health Minister António Lacerda Sales said Portugal’s high vaccination rate, which has covered about 87% of the population, has enabled it to avoid the worst consequences of COVID-19 despite a recent surge in infections due to the omicron variant.
He said that compared with a year ago, Portugal is recording fewer than a third of the patients in hospital, fewer than a quarter in ICUs and fewer than one-fifth of deaths.
He said Monday the government is not planning to postpone the scheduled return of schoolchildren to classes next Monday.
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ROME — At least 100 passengers aboard a cruise ship in the Mediterranean have tested positive for COVID-19, according to Italian news reports.
Italian state TV’s RaiNews24 said that the passengers testing positive numbered 150 aboard the MSC Grandiosa, which docked on Monday in Genoa, and that most of them of were Italian.
Genoa daily Il Secolo XIX reported that about 40 of those who tested positive got off the cruise liner in Genoa, while others would be disembarked in Civitavecchia, a port that serves Rome, or in Palermo, Sicily.
The cruise company didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
The newspaper said there were nearly some 4,000 passengers in all aboard the ship, which reached Genoa after sailing from Marseille, France.