Covid news live: Boris Johnson warns of Omicron ‘tidal wave’; South African president tests positive

Speaking of South Korea, the south Asian country has just released their daily Covid numbers.

A further 5,817 coronavirus cases were recorded over the past 24 hours, with 40 confirmed deaths.

A total of 83.7 % of the eligible population has at least one Covid vaccine and 81.2 % are fully vaccinated, according to ministry of health data.

South Korea will soon roll out a pilot project to use artificial intelligence, facial recognition and thousands of CCTV cameras to track the movement of people infected with the coronavirus, Reuters reports.

The nationally funded project in Bucheon, one of the country’s most densely populated cities on the outskirts of Seoul, is due to become operational in January, a city official told the news agency.

The system uses an AI algorithms and facial recognition technology to analyse footage gathered by more than 10,820 CCTV cameras and track an infected person’s movements, anyone they had close contact with, and whether they were wearing a mask, according to a 110-page business plan from the city submitted to the Ministry of Science and ICT (Information and Communications Technology), and provided to Reuters by a parliamentary lawmaker critical of the project.

The Bucheon official said the system should reduce the strain on overworked tracing teams in a city with a population of more than 800,000 people, and help use the teams more efficiently and accurately. The system can reportedly track up to ten people in five to ten minutes, cutting the time spent on manual work that takes around half an hour to one hour to trace one person.

South Korea already has a high-tech contact tracing system that harvests credit card records, cellphone location data and CCTV footage, among other personal information.

Bucheon mayor Jang Deog-cheon argued that the system would make tracing faster.

“It sometimes takes hours to analyse a single CCTV footage. Using visual recognition technology will enable that analysis in an instant,” he said on Twitter.

The Ministry of Science and ICT said it has no current plans to expand the project to the national level. It said the purpose of the system was to digitise some of the manual labour that contact tracers currently have to carry out.

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday, but was showing mild symptoms, the presidency said.

“The President started feeling unwell after leaving the State Memorial Service in honour of former Deputy President FW de Klerk in Cape Town earlier today,” the statement said.

“The President, who is fully vaccinated, is in self-isolation in Cape Town and has delegated all responsibilities to Deputy President David Mabuza for the next week,” it added.

Hello it’s Samantha Lock with you as we go through all the latest coronavirus developments.

The Omicron variant has now spread to 63 countries with faster transmission noted in South Africa and the UK, the World Health Organization has said.

Britain faces a “tidal wave” of the Omicron variant of coronavirus and two vaccine doses will not be enough to contain it, prime minister Boris Johnson has warned, as he accelerated the booster rollout programme, bringing forward a target to give over-18s a booster jab by one month to the end of December.

“No one should be in any doubt: there is a tidal wave of Omicron coming,” he said in a televised address, after the country’s medical advisers raised the Covid Alert Level due to a “rapid increase” in infection from the variant.

“I’m afraid it is now clear that two doses of vaccine are simply not enough to give the level of protection we all need,” Johnson added.

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday and is receiving treatment for mild symptoms, the presidency said.

“The President started feeling unwell after leaving the State Memorial Service in honour of former Deputy President FW de Klerk in Cape Town earlier today,” the statement said.

“The President, who is fully vaccinated, is in self-isolation in Cape Town and has delegated all responsibilities to Deputy President David Mabuza for the next week,” it added.

Here is a snapshot of the latest Covid developments:

• The WHO says the Omicron variant is more transmissible than the Delta strain and reduces vaccine efficacy but causes less severe symptoms according to early data.
• British prime minister Boris Johnson launched an “Omicron emergency booster national mission” to protect the NHS and patients, ramping up vaccinations and rolling out 1m booster jabs a day.
• The UK recorded 48,854 new Covid cases and 52 additional deaths, raising the Covid alert level from 3 to 4.
• The UK also confirmed an additional 1,239 Omicron cases, marking the biggest daily rise to date with the total number of confirmed cases 3,137.
• America’s top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, said that Omicron “clearly has a transmission advantage” over previous Covid strains and stepped up calls for Americans to get booster shots as the new variant spread to at least 25 states.
• Austria has ended lockdown restrictions for vaccinated people across most of the country, three weeks after it was imposed. However, more than 25,000 demonstrators turned out in several cities to protest against the country’s compulsory vaccination plan, forcing citizens to be jabbed or face fines from February.
• Vaccinated people who are identified as a contact of somebody who has tested positive for Covid-19 should take an NHS rapid lateral flow test every day for a week, the UK government announced.
• Russia’s registered Covid cases passed the 10 million mark today, after nearly 30,000 cases were reported in the last 24 hours.
• Scotland aims to offer booster jabs to all eligible adults by the end of the year.