Latest global covid update – December 7, 2021

Otautahi – The confirmed cases of covid globally have passed 265.8 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The number of confirmed deaths has now passed 5.25 million. More than 8.18 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.

Thailand has detected its first case of the Omicron covid variant, a health official said today.

South Africa is preparing its hospitals for more admissions, as the Omicron covid variant pushes the country into a fourth wave of infections.

The UK has now reported 86 new cases of the Omicron variant, bringing its total identified so far to 246.

Australia's medicines regulator has provisionally approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for children aged five to 11.

Spain's Hipra health organisation is confident there will be European Union demand for its experimental covid vaccine once approved for use, as it is designed to protect against new variants, can be moved easily and produced in mass quantity.

South Korea has reported three more cases of the Omicron variant. It comes after it reported a record daily number of new covid cases last Friday - 5352.

Senegal has reported its first confirmed case of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

The Indian state of Maharashtra said yesterday it had detected seven new cases of the Omicron variant, bringing the country's total to 12.

US health officials say the Omicron variant has been detected in about a third of the country’s states. The Delta variant remains responsible for the majority of cases there.

A new report has warned that Africa has little chance of overcoming the pandemic unless 70 percent of its population is vaccinated by the end of next year, but extreme vaccine discrimination is leaving the continent behind.

Only five of Africa's 54 countries are on track to reach a World Health Organisation target of vaccinating 40 percent of the population by end of this year.