(Reuters) – France reported a record high of 179,807 new confirmed coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period on Tuesday, one of the highest one-day tallies worldwide since the start of the pandemic. [nL1N2TD122]
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
* Eikon users, see COVID-19: MacroVitals for a case tracker and summary of news
AMERICAS
* The Omicron variant was estimated to be 58.6% of the coronavirus variants circulating in the United States as of Dec. 25, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday.
* U.S. health authorities shortened the recommended isolation time for Americans with asymptomatic cases to five days from the previous guidance of 10 days.
* Quebec, the second most populous Canadian province, has “no choice” but to allow some essential workers to continue working even after testing positive for COVID-19 to prevent staff shortages from impeding its healthcare services, Health Minister Christian Dube said Tuesday.
* U.S carriers Delta Air Lines and Alaska Air Group canceled hundreds of flights on Tuesday due to adverse weather conditions and rising cases of the Omicron variant.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Australia recorded another record surge in infections as an outbreak of the highly infectious Omicron variant disrupted reopening of the economy, while state leaders argued over domestic border controls.
* Indonesian health authorities were conducting contact tracing on Tuesday after detecting the Southeast Asian country’s first case of the Omicron variant in the community.
EUROPE
* Britain reported a record 129,471 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, a day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would not bring in new restrictions this year to limit the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the virus.
* Demand for free COVID-19 testing kits provided by Madrid’s regional government far outstripped supply on Tuesday, with long queues forming outside pharmacies as nationwide infections continued to climb amid the Omicron variant’s rapid expansion.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Cyprus on Tuesday recorded a single-day record high of COVID-19 infections since the virus was first identified on the island in March 2020, data showed.
* Daily new coronavirus cases in Turkey jumped beyond 30,000 on Tuesday for the first time since Oct. 19, data showed, as the health minister warned of the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* India gave emergency use authorisation for Merck’s COVID-19 pill molnupiravir, and Serum Institute of India’s Covovax and Biological E’s Corbevax coronavirus vaccines.
* China’s Kintor faced a temporary setback as interim analysis for a late-stage trial for its potential COVID-19 pill did not yield sufficient data due to the lack of hospitalised cases.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Global equity markets climbed on Tuesday, boosted by another record-setting open on Wall Street as investors shrugged off concerns over Omicron-driven travel disruptions and store closures. [GLOBAL-MARKETS/]
* Japan’s factory output jumped at the fastest pace on record in November, as easing global supply chain bottlenecks helped car production leap out of its recent slump, lifting prospects for a strong fourth-quarter economic rebound.
(Compiled by Devika Syamnath and Shinjini Ganguli; Edited by Shounak Dasgupta and Maju Samuel)
