Australia will begin administering vaccines for children from January; nearly all of the 40 people in the US infected with Omicron were mildly ill
- South African Covid cases up 255% in a week as Omicron spreads
- Stricter measures than plan B may be needed to stop Omicron in UK
- People in Scotland ‘strongly urged’ to defer Christmas parties
- UK daily Covid case tally remains above 50,000
- Italian who presented fake arm for jab ‘has since been vaccinated’
Hello and welcome back to our Covid blog this Friday. I’m Samantha Lock and I will be taking you through all the key developments from around the world.
Let’s dive right in with some positive news out of Australia where children aged five to 11 will receive the Pfizer Covid vaccine from 10 January, after the federal government accepted a recommendation for its use from immunisation experts. The prime minister, Scott Morrison, said: “In one month from today, about 2.27 million Aussie kids aged five to 11 years will have the opportunity to roll up their sleeve and get vaccinated against Covid-19.”
