France – Isolation reduced to seven days for positive people

France’s isolation rules will be eased from Monday, January 3, for people positive for COVID-19 who have a full immunization programme, the government announced on Sunday. They will have to isolate themselves for a period of seven days, irrespective of the type, as against 10 days at present.

Health Minister Olivier Veran said this isolation could be removed after five days in the event of an antigen test or negative PCR and no clinical signs of infection for 48 hours.

Post people who do not have a full vaccination schedule for the coronavirus, they will have to “isolate themselves for ten days, with possible exit after seven days under similar conditions”, he continued.

Also, there will be no further quarantine for contact cases with a complete vaccination schedule. Those who have not received the vaccination booster will have to isolate themselves for seven days.

short delay for booster

Olivier Veran announced that the deadline for taking a booster dose of the Kovid-19 vaccine to be able to hold a valid health pass will be reduced from February 15 to a maximum of four months instead of seven.

The rule currently in force is that the sanitary pass becomes inactive after seven months from 15 January in the absence of a booster dose, often referred to as the third dose.

United Kingdom – Health minister called on to “live” with virus

British Health Minister Sajid Javid said on Saturday that the new restrictions would only intervene in England “as a last resort” despite a surge in Omicron cases, believing it was necessary to learn to “live” with the coronavirus.

The United Kingdom, one of the worst-hit countries with more than 148,600 deaths from the pandemic, records contamination records every day (more than 189,000 in the 24 hours on Friday).

Hospitalizations are also on the rise, even though officials have insisted that the Omicron variant causes less severe forms than Delta. “The number (of people) in intensive care units is stable and does not at this time follow the trajectory that we saw during the alpha wave in this period last year,” said Sajid Javid in a column published in the Daily Mail.

With the country in a “very strong position” for a massive vaccine booster campaign, the government decided not to introduce new restrictions during the holidays in England, they continued in Wales and Northern Ireland, unlike Scotland.

China – Decrease in cases in Xi’an

Public health officials said new COVID-19 contamination reached its lowest level in the past seven days in Xi’an (North), a Chinese city confined to eleven days.

On Sunday, 122 new coronavirus infections – its lowest level since December 25 – were recorded in this historic city in the north of the country famous for the underground army of China’s first emperor, up from 174 the day before. .

There have been “some positive changes” as a result of the large-scale screening strategy as well as the impact of prevention, according to Zhang Canyu of the Chinese Disease Control Agency, he told China Central Television. According to the National Health Commission, a total of 16 patients are in “critical” condition.

>> MORE INFORMATION: China welcomes drop in cases in Xi’an city

United States – Air transport severely disrupted

Air transport in the United States is greatly disrupted. Unfavorable weather in many regions of the country has added to the disruption in the global skies due to the outbreak of COVID cases linked to Omicron Edition.

According to the FlightAware site, the United States had 2,725 canceled flights since the start of the day, more than half of the 4,618 that have been canceled globally), around 11 a.m. (5 a.m. Sunday in Switzerland).

Global air transport has also been greatly hampered by the Omicron version of the coronavirus, which is highly contagious. Many pilots and flight crew members are absent, or exposed to, after contracting COVID-19 and therefore in quarantine, forcing companies, which do not have enough staff to ensure flights, to be canceled .

rtsinfo