Health News Roundup: France hits over 200,000 new COVID-19 cases on average per day; Omicron may be less severe in young and old, but not 'mild' - WHO and more

Total hospitalisations on Wednesday stood at 363 patients, after the Health Ministry reported more than 16,000 new cases - a record high in Israel since the start of the pandemic - with a daily increase of 32 more people falling severely ill. Canada signs deal to buy 20,000 more doses of GSK COVID-19 drug GlaxoSmithKline PLC said on Thursday it has signed agreements with the Canadian government to supply 20,000 more doses of its COVID-19 drug, as the country battles a surge in infections driven by the Omicron variant.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Chile to become first country in Latin America to offer fourth COVID shot

Chile will begin offering a fourth shot of the coronavirus vaccine next week to immunocompromised citizens, the government said on Thursday, the first country in Latin America and one of the first in the world to offer the extra dose. "Starting next Monday, January 10, we are going to start a new mass vaccination process with a fourth dose or a second booster dose," said Pinera in a press conference.

France hits over 200,000 new COVID-19 cases on average per day

France reported 261,481 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, less than the record of more than 332,000 set on Wednesday, but the seven-day moving average of new cases rose above 200,000 for the first time since the start of the health crisis. The seven-day moving average - which smoothes out daily reporting irregularities - had peaked at over 54,000 in November of 2020. With the recent Omicron surge, that record was broken before Christmas, as the average rose to over 100,000 in the last days of December. It has more than doubled to 206,091 on Thursday, an all-time high.

Omicron may be less severe in young and old, but not 'mild' - WHO

The more infectious Omicron variant of COVID-19 appears to produce less severe disease than the globally dominant Delta strain, but should not be categorised as "mild", World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Thursday. Janet Diaz, WHO lead on clinical management, said early studies showed there was a reduced risk of hospitalisation from the variant first identified in southern Africa and Hong Kong in November compared with Delta.

CDC recommends Pfizer's COVID-19 booster for ages 12 to 15

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Wednesday it expanded the eligibility of Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE's booster doses to those 12 to 15 years old.

The move came after a panel of outside experts advising the CDC voted earlier to recommend booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine be made available for ages 12 to 15.

White House says decision to enact vaccine mandates for schools up to local school districts

The White House said on Thursday the decision to enact vaccine mandates for schools is up to local school districts. "Those decisions related to schools .... will always be up to local school districts in terms of what steps need to be taken," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

UK PM Johnson says COVID-19 shots will stay voluntary, attacks anti-vax movement

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday COVID-19 vaccines would not be made mandatory even though anti-vax campaigners were dissuading people from taking up the shots. Johnson said he wanted to persuade those people hesitating about the vaccines to get them, but the task was made harder by people spreading misinformation.

Brazil's Bolsonaro knocks vaccinating children, criticizes health regulator

President Jair Bolsonaro criticized Brazil's health regulator Anvisa on Thursday for authorizing the vaccination of children aged 5 to 11 years against COVID-19, one day after his health minister unveiled plans to inoculate that age group. Vaccine skeptic Bolsonaro said in a radio interview that he had not heard of children dying of COVID-19 and repeated that his daughter Laura, 11, would not be vaccinated.

Italy's coronavirus cases hit new daily record of 219,441 Thursday

Italy reported a record daily number of new COVID-19 cases on Thursday at 219,441 against 189,109 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of coronavirus-related deaths fell to 198 from 231. Italy has registered 138,474 deaths linked to the virus since its outbreak emerged in February 2020, and has reported 6.975 million cases to date.

Infections at record high, hospitalisations low as Omicron sweeps Israel

Data from Israel on Thursday supported growing evidence worldwide that Omicron causes milder illness than previous variants of the coronavirus even as the country grappled with a record number of daily infections. Total hospitalisations on Wednesday stood at 363 patients, after the Health Ministry reported more than 16,000 new cases - a record high in Israel since the start of the pandemic - with a daily increase of 32 more people falling severely ill.

Canada signs deal to buy 20,000 more doses of GSK COVID-19 drug

GlaxoSmithKline PLC said on Thursday it has signed agreements with the Canadian government to supply 20,000 more doses of its COVID-19 drug, as the country battles a surge in infections driven by the Omicron variant. The new purchase agreement follows October's initial deal to supply 10,000 doses of the drug, sotrovimab, which included an option for Canada to buy more.