Coronavirus, last minute | Alert for the new South African variant

Health has reported 9,258 cases and 27 deaths with COVID-19 this Thursday. The official count in Spain reaches 87,931 deceased and the cases registered since the beginning of the pandemic amount to 5,121,100.

The cumulative incidence it continues to rise after exceeding the threshold of one hundred cases: it has grown by more than 11 points since the last day, to 160.15 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The rate rises throughout the country. Only Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and Ceuta remain at low risk.

Justice has authorized the COVID certificate requirement to access certain spaces and events in Catalonia and Navarra. Valencia has already announced that it is going to request it, while in Aragon it has come into force this Thursday. Instead, the Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country has overturned a similar measure.

There are already more than 5.1 million deaths and more than 259 million infected people around the planet. Europe is the region with the highest increase in cases. The EU has recommended a third booster dose of the vaccine for all those of legal age, and especially for those over 40 years of age, and that the COVID passport limit its validity to nine months from vaccination. The European Medicines Agency has given the green light to vaccinate children between the ages of 5 and 11 with the Pfizer vaccine.

This is how we tell you the last hour of the pandemic minute by minute:

Miguel Charte

Miguel Charte

Minute
Description

08:33

Germany plans to cut flights to South Africa. According to sources from the Ministry of Health, cited by Reuters, this Friday Germany will limit flights and allow only Germans to travel back from South Africa, and they will have to be quarantined for 14 days.
08:31

“As the scientists have described it, this is the most significant variant found so far in their research,” Shapps told Sky News.
08:29

The UK Health Security Agency ensures that the new variant, called B.1.1.529, has a totally different protein from the original virus, on which vaccines are based.
08:28

The United Kingdom defends its decision to suspend flights with South Africa and assures that the identified variant is very significant.

British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has defended the suspension of flights with South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Swaziland, and has assured that the pandemic has shown that early action is essential.
08:21

The COVID passport is one of the measures that are on the table in the face of the increase in coronavirus infections, and in fact Aragon has just implemented it to access nightlife; Galicia, which already required it in this sector, has extended it to hospital visits, and the Basque Country is seeking the endorsement of the Supreme Court after the rejection of its Superior Court of Justice.

The Valencian Community has already decided that it will ask the Superior Court of Justice of the Community for the endorsement for its implementation as of December 3 and for 30 days, in hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues, casinos, bingo halls and other celebrations.

However, Castilla y León does not plan to apply this tool, after the expert committee has doubted that it is effective on its own.
08:20

We return to Spain.

Catalonia has expanded the use of the COVID certificate since midnight. Until now in force in nightlife, in restaurants, gyms and homes for the elderly, a measure that is being studied this Friday in Andalusia for various sectors and to which Navarra will join tomorrow Saturday to access restaurants, discos, nightclubs and others events.
08:15

Faced with this new variant, the government of the India has given instructions to intensify the screening of travelers.

“It has been reported that this variant has a significantly high number of mutations, and therefore has a serious implication for public health,” warns the Indian Secretary of Health, Rajesh Bhushan, in a letter addressed to the states and collected by the local news agency PTI.
08:10

There is now a concern about a new variant detected in South Africa.

Yesterday the United Kingdom announced that it was suspending flights with this country. The South African authorities criticize the measure and assure that it is “hasty”, when the World Health Organization (WHO) has not yet reported on the steps to be taken.
08:08

There are already more than 5.1 million deaths and more than 259 million infected people around the planet. Europe is the region with the highest increase in cases and the EU has recommended a third dose of the vaccines for all adults.
08:07

Health has reported 9,258 cases and 27 deaths with COVID-19 this Thursday. The official count in Spain reaches 87,931 deaths and the cases registered since the beginning of the pandemic amount to 5,121,100.
07:55

Good Morning. We begin at this time, as every day since the beginning of the pandemic, the news story about the new coronavirus, SARS-COV-2, and the disease it causes, COVID-19.