Europe

Live updates: Germany shuts out unvaccinated, eyes mandate | AP News BERLIN - Germans who aren’t vaccinated are to be excluded from nonessential stores, cultural and recreational venues. Also, Germany’s parliament is to consider a general vaccine mandate. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday the measures were necessary in light of concerns that hospitals in Germany could become overloaded with COVID-19 patients. AP NEWS

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Merkel said, “The situation in our country is serious.”

Live updates: WHO: Travel bans hurting global cooperation | AP News GENEVA — The World Health Organization says travel bans by countries are having an impact on global cooperation against the new omicron variant by causing “challenges” to the sharing of laboratory samples from South Africa that can help get better grips on the new variant. AP NEWS

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Amid the global concern over a new coronavirus strain has been one piece of hopeful news: Those infected with the omicron variant appear to have “very mild” symptoms, according to the South African doctor who first spotted the variant.

Dr. Angelique Coetzee told the BBC that neither she nor her colleagues had admitted anyone who had the strain to the hospital so far. Her patients had experienced extreme fatigue but no loss of taste or smell, which are often telltale symptoms of Covid-19, she said.

The early reports are encouraging, epidemiologists and other experts said. 

Omicron outbreak turns up heat on EU over vaccine access India and South Africa want a waiver on patents, but Brussels is not budging. POLITICO

An outbreak of the new Omicron coronavirus variant in Southern Africa is boosting critics of the EU, who say that Brussels is preventing a quick roll-out of jabs across poor nations by zealously defending vaccine patents.