Covid Variants

A controversial mask mandate for Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia, ended on Sunday.

Dr. Anthony Fauci this week said Americans must be “flexible” enough to reinstitute Chinese coronavirus mandates if officials deem it “necessary.”

(AP) — Schoolchildren returned to classes Monday in parts of Europe, while the British government pledged to rush ventilation units and enough COVID-19 test kits to schools to ensure they, too, can reopen later this week despite soaring infection rates in the UK.

The Austrian government has announced it will be extending the general lockdown for all unvaccinated residents as the Omicron variant of the Wuhan virus spreads across the country.

VIENNA (AP) – Germany is tightening travel restrictions for people coming from Britain in response to the rapid spread of the omicron variant there.

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) – Cyprus will start vaccinating kids between the ages of 5 to 11, the government said Monday in fresh bid to head off another COVID-19 surge following the first confirmed cases of the omicron variant on the eastern Mediterranean island nation.

Boris Johnson appeared to issue a veiled threat to citizens that failing to “get boosted” as a matter of urgency could see their “freedoms” and “way of life” taken away in an address to the nation.

AMSTERDAM (AP) – The Netherlands moved into a tougher lockdown Sunday that was announced amid spiking infections even before the country recorded its first confirmed cases of the new, more highly transmissible omicron virus variant.

TOKYO (AP) – Portuguese health authorities said Monday they have identified 13 cases of omicron, the new coronavirus variant believed to be more contagious, among team members of a professional soccer club.

World Health Organization (W.H.O.) officials will meet Friday to address concerns regarding the latest coronavirus variant on the rise in South Africa.

A big sell-off all around the world as investors grapple with fears of latest variant from South Africa.

(AFP) – Officers used pepper spray and made over 200 arrests in Melbourne as several hundred protesters flouted stay-at-home orders and marched through an inner-city suburb.

(AFP) — Hundreds were arrested after violent clashes between anti-lockdown protesters and police in Australia’s two largest cities Saturday as the country recorded its sharpest rise in daily Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began.

(AFP) — Australia’s biggest city announced tighter Covid restrictions including heavier fines and tighter policing on Saturday as authorities battled to contain a Delta outbreak and said they were seeing the “most concerning day of the pandemic” so far.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne, went into a sixth lockdown on Thursday, with a state government leader blaming the nation’s slow COVID-19 vaccination rollout.

Footage of police helicopters flying over beaches and parks in Australia to enforce draconian coronavirus lockdown measures is circulating on social media. 

National Rugby League (NRL) players and their families have been banned from their balconies and ordered to tape them shut to stop Covid in parts of Queensland, Australia.

Brexit leader Nigel Farage has said that since ‘Freedom Day’ on Monday, England appears to be locking down rather than opening up, as hundreds of thousands of Britons are advised to quarantine after being pinged by the NHS coronavirus app.

(AFP) — Thousands marched through Australia’s two biggest cities in anti-lockdown protests Saturday, sparking violent clashes with police in Sydney.

‘Vaccination isn’t just an individual decision, but one that affects the health of others – including those already vaccinated,” wrote Dr. Leana Wen.

LISBON, Portugal (AP) – Countries across Europe are scrambling to accelerate coronavirus vaccinations and outpace the spread of the more infectious delta variant, in a high-stakes race to prevent hospital wards from filling up again with patients fighting for their lives.

The British authorities are planning to offer a third round of coronavirus vaccine doses to over-50s alongside flu shots from September, claiming that “we will need to ensure protection against flu as well as maintaining protection against Covid-19” as winter descends.

LONDON (AP) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave a strong hint Saturday that the next planned relaxation of coronavirus restrictions in England this month will be delayed as a result of the spread of the delta variant first identified in India.