Covid: 55 positives on cruise ship departed from Florida

Fifty-five positive people at Covid aboard a Royal Carribean cruise ship departing from Florida on Saturday. The infected on the Odyssey of the Seas are among the passengers and crew, even if 95% of those on board are fully vaccinated. The Caribbean islands of Curaçao and Aruba in the Netherlands Antilles have banned docking. The ship will remain at sea until its return to Florida on December 26th. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are investigating the increase in identified cases on the ship, which hosts 3,587 passengers and 1,599 crew members. "All cases appear to be mild or asymptomatic. Furthermore, there have been no hospitalizations or deaths from the ship," say the CDCs who are working closely with Royal Caribbean.The ship is currently identified with the 'yellow' code, indicating that it is under observation by the Cdc. The US authorities will consider "various factors" to assess whether it should be identified with 'red', a status for which it would be forced to return to port. The 'Odyssey of the Seas' left on an eight-day Caribbean cruise last Saturday.

Cases between crews, United Airlines cancels 100 flights

 - United Airlines has canceled 100 flights scheduled on Christmas Eve following Covid-19 cases among crew members and operations staff.

CNN reports it.

"Omicron's case leap this week has had a direct impact on our crews and operations personnel," the airline said.

France, reduce booster interval to 3 months

 - To cope with the fifth wave of Covid raised by the Omicron variant, the French health authority (Has) has recommended reducing the interval between the second vaccine dose and the booster dose to three months and to vaccinate adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age with the third dose, who are most at risk for the spread of the virus.

Tunisia, 5 other cases of Omicron detected 

- Five other infections of Covid-19 with the Omicron variant have been recorded in Tunisia. Mahjoub Ouni, a member of the Tunisian Scientific Committee for the fight against coronavirus, told the media, specifying that these are people from South Africa, who tested positive on 20 December at Tunis airport after carrying out rapid tests and that at the are currently in a mandatory quarantine center. The Omicron variant was first detected in Tunisia earlier this month in a 23-year-old Tunisian citizen who arrived from Congo on a flight from Istanbul airport.

Cases in Israel are rising, now 1,482, rate at 1.4% -

Cases in Israel are still

: in the last 24 hours, according to the ministry of health, they were 1,482 with a positive rate of 1.4%. Young people under 20 years of age are most affected with almost 30% of new infections to the detriment of trivaccinated people. Of the 88 serious cases, however, 75% involve unvaccinated people. At the moment, the postponement of the introduction of the fourth dose to over 60 and subjects at risk who, according to some sources, should have started next Sunday has been confirmed. The so-called 'Helsinki Committee' of the ministry of health has not yet authorized the request of the Sheba hospital to administer the second booster, as a spokesperson for the same hospital has announced.   

First Thailand outbreak, 'triggered by tourists' 

 - Thailand has reported a first outbreak of 21 cases of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 coronavirus in the northeastern province of Kalasin. The Thai authorities, who believe that the infections were triggered by a Belgian couple who would have traveled to the country at the beginning of the month, reported this - cited by various media including Al Jazeera. In November, Thailand reopened its doors to vaccinated tourists from over 60 countries, lifting the quarantine obligation, but reintroduced restrictions in recent days for fears related to the spread of Omicron.

Serbia, first Omicron case registered - 

A first case of contagion from the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has been recorded in Serbia. In giving the news, the public TV RTS reported that it is a person who returned from Botswana and entered the Balkan country with a negative PCR test. Subsequent checks revealed the variant infection. For this reason, the crisis unit for the fight against the coronavirus was convened for Tuesday. In Serbia, which has seven million inhabitants, the epidemiological situation has been stable for several days, with a daily number of infections of just over a thousand units and deaths ranging around 30. Despite repeated appeals from the authorities, vaccination always proceeds slowly and the population shows little discipline in respecting the prevention measures.