Health News Roundup: S.Korea reports 3 more Omicron cases; Italy reports 43 COVID-19 deaths on Sunday, 15,021 new cases and more

Germany has been reticent about making vaccines compulsory for fear of exacerbating a shortage of medical and nursing home staff, but support has grown for the idea as the country has faced surging infections in a fourth wave of the pandemic. Omicron variant found in at least 15 U.S. states -CDC chief The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has been found in about 15 U.S. states so far, but the Delta variant remains the majority of COVID-19 cases nationwide, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Sunday.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

U.S. administers 470.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines -CDC

The United States had administered 470,297,846 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Sunday morning and distributed 580,417,105 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The number of doses administered was up from 468,516,782 as reported on Saturday, the CDC said.

S.Korea reports 3 more Omicron cases

South Korea on Sunday reported three more Omicron coronavirus variant cases, bringing its total confirmed so far to 12, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. It reported 5,128 new COVID-19 cases for Saturday, a slight decline after reporting a record daily tally of 5,352 a day earlier.

Omicron variant found in nearly one-third of U.S. states

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has spread to about one-third of U.S. states, but the Delta version remains the majority of COVID-19 infections as cases rise nationwide, U.S. health officials said on Sunday. Though the emergence of the new variant has caused alarm worldwide, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease official, told CNN "thus far it does not look like there's a great degree of severity to it" but he added that it was too early to draw definitive conclusions and more study is needed.

Italy reports 43 COVID-19 deaths on Sunday, 15,021 new cases

Italy reported 43 coronavirus-related deaths on Sunday compared to 75 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new reported infections fell to 15,021 from 16,632. Italy has registered 134,195 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak began in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth-highest in the world.

Germany plans to make vaccination compulsory for some jobs - draft

The incoming German government wants to make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory from March 16 for people working in hospitals, nursing homes and other medical practices, according to a copy of draft legislation seen by Reuters on Sunday. Germany has been reticent about making vaccines compulsory for fear of exacerbating a shortage of medical and nursing home staff, but support has grown for the idea as the country has faced surging infections in a fourth wave of the pandemic.

Omicron variant found in at least 15 U.S. states -CDC chief

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has been found in about 15 U.S. states so far, but the Delta variant remains the majority of COVID-19 cases nationwide, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Sunday. "We know we have several dozen cases and we're following them closely. And we are every day hearing about more and more probable cases so that number is likely to rise," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told ABC News in an interview, adding more data is still needed.

COVID cases found on Norwegian Cruise ship returning to New Orleans

A cruise ship set to dock in New Orleans with over 3,000 passengers has detected 10 cases of COVID-19 among its crew and guests, the Louisiana Department of Health said late on Saturday. The cruise ship Norwegian Breakaway, owned by Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd, departed New Orleans on a weeklong cruise on Nov. 28 and had stops in Belize, Honduras and Mexico, the health agency said.

India detects seven more Omicron cases, making 12 in all

India's tally of reported cases of the heavily mutated Omicron variant of the coronavirus rose to 12 on Sunday after the state of Maharashtra said it had detected seven new cases. Local media also said a new case had been reported in New Delhi.

Jordan court jails health officials over COVID-19 oxygen deaths

A Jordanian court sentenced five senior health officials to three years in jail on Sunday for causing the death of 10 COVID-19 patients following an oxygen outage in a major state hospital, state media said. The court found the former director of the state hospital in Salt, a city west of the capital, and four of his senior aides responsible for the deaths, the media said. The patients, who were being treated in the hospital, died in March when staff failed to act after oxygen ran out in a COVID-19 ward for nearly an hour.

UK reports 86 new cases of Omicron COVID-19 variant, total 246

Britain's health security agency on Sunday reported 86 new cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, taking the total number identified so far to 246.

(With inputs from agencies.)