Covid live: France confirms record 368,149 new cases as Italy reports all-time high of 220,532 new cases

France has reported a record of more than 350,000 new cases as health minister Olivier V?ran warned.

The confirmed record figure for new cases is 368,149.

The UK‘s prime minister Boris Johnson needs to spend the next six months rebuilding public trust in his government, a senior Conservative MP has said.

Sir Charles Walker, the vice chairman of the influential backbench 1922 Committee, said an invitation to Downing Street staff to attend a drinks party in the garden of No 10 in May 2020 had been a “huge error of judgment”.

He told Channel 4 News:

The World Health Organisation (WHO)’s technical lead for Covid-19, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, has described so-called Covid parties as “dangerous” and warned of the threat of long Covid.

Images and videos have appeared on social media purportedly showing people purposefully trying to catch Covid at a time convenient to them.

Catching the virus at one of these events could lead to a “real” chance of developing severe disease as well as passing it on to someone who is more vulnerable, she warned at a briefing today.

Good evening from London. I’m L?onie Chao-Fong, taking over from Matthew Weaver to bring you all the latest global developments on the coronavirus pandemic for the next few hours. Do get in touch with tips and stories on Twitter or via email.

We’ll start in Quebec, Canada’s second-most populous province, where residents who refuse to get vaccinated against Covid for non-medical reasons could face a “significant” financial penalty.

Quebec’s premier Fran?ois Legault made the announcement today, describing the measures as a “health-care contribution” though the exact amount has not yet been determined. He told reporters:

Only 10% of the population is unvaccinated but they make up 50% of patients in intensive care beds, Legault said, adding:

The health tax will apply to all adults in Quebec who refuse to get their first vaccine dose “in the next few weeks”. The new measure comes as Quebec’s hospitals find themselves increasingly stretched with more admissions driven by the Omicron variant and staff absences.

Ireland is expected to lift restrictions on the movement of people who have been in close contact with someone suffering from Covid, Reuters reports.

In a radio interview with Newstalk, the minister for health, Stephen Donnelly, said he had received updated advice on coronavirus restrictions that would be considered by his cabinet colleagues on Wednesday. He said:

Boosted immunity means people who have had two doses of a vaccine and a confirmed diagnosis of Covid in the last three months, Donnelly said.

Ireland’s health department reported 19,290 new cases on Tuesday, with tOmicron accounting for 92% of all infections in the country.

Donnelly said he would also propose that certain age groups with a positive rapid antigen test no longer need a PCR test to confirm the result.

The isolation period for those who test positive is set to be standardised at seven days, regardless of whether they have received a booster vaccination.

France has reported a record of more than 350,000 new cases as health minister Olivier V?ran warned.

The confirmed record figure for new cases is 368,149.

About three-quarters of teachers in France plan to strike on Thursday to protest against the government’s shifting rules on Covid forcing the closure of half the country’s primary schools, a union has warned.

The strike led by the Snuipp-FSU union, the largest among primary school teachers, comes after the latest of several changes on testing and isolation requirements for potential Covid cases announced by Prime Minister Jean Castex on Monday.

After seeing long queues of parents outside pharmacies and labs in recent days to test children in classes where a case was detected, Castex said home tests could now be used to determine if a student could return to school.

But teachers say class disruptions have become unmanageable with the spread of the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus variant, especially since many parents remain unable to get vaccination appointments for children over five, available only since late December.

“Students cannot learn properly because attendance varies wildly, and a hybrid of in-house and distance learning is impossible to put in place,” the Snuipp-FSU said, adding that absent teachers are not being replaced.

It is also demanding the government provide facemasks for staff, including the more protective FFP2 masks, and CO2 monitors to check if classrooms are sufficiently ventilated.

“Not only does the current protocol not protect students, staff or their families, it has completely disorganised schools,” the union said, claiming that classes have effectively been turned into “daycare centres.”

The education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, has said the government is doing everything possible to avoid outright school closures that could cause havoc for parents and jeopardise learning for thousands, especially those in low-income families.

Turkey has become the latest country to announce a record number of cases, with 74,266 new infections.

There were 137 deaths related to coronavirus in the same period, the data showed. In late December, daily cases stood at around 20,000.

The health minister, Fahrettin Koca, said:

Italy has reported record 220,532 new cases, more than double the figure announced on Monday.

It also announced another 294 Covid-related deaths.

Italy has registered 139,559 deaths linked to the virus since its outbreak emerged in February 2020, and has reported 7.77 million cases to date.

Patients in hospital with Covid – not including those in intensive care – stood at 17,067 up from 16,340 a day earlier.

There were 185 admissions to intensive care units, against 114 on Monday. The total number of intensive care patients increased to 1,677 from a previous 1,606.

Here’s a round up of Tuesday’s developments:

France’s health ministry is expected to announce a record of more than 350,000 new Covid infections over a 24-hour period, according to the health minister, Olivier V?ran.
Novak Djokovic’s defence of his Australian Open title remains in doubt after reports that he might have given misleading information to Australian immigration officials.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke is still considering whether to cancel Djokovic’s visa despite his court victory on Monday. Officials are concerned about Djokovic’s claim on his entry form that he had not travelled in the 14 days prior to his arrival in Australia on January 6.
Sweden has announced a record 70,641 new Covid cases since Friday. It also said there were a 54 new deaths from Covid.
The US has recorded a record number of hospitalisations due to Covid-19, as the daily infection rate soared to more than 1.35m. There were 145,982 people hospitalised with coronavirus on Monday, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.
The UK has recorded another 379 deaths within 28 days of a positive test. It also reported another 120,821 new cases, down on Monday’s new cases total of 142,224.
Some local authorities in Finland are defying government isolation measures in schools. Taina Isosomppi, Helsinki’s chief epidemiologist, said: “It would be disproportionate to implement large-scale quarantines at schools when they have not been a high-risk environment to begin with.”
More than half of people in Europe could contract the Omicron in the next two months if infections continue at current rates, the World Health Organization has warned.
Regional director Hans Kluge said: “At this rate, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) forecasts that more than 50% of the population in the region will be infected with Omicron in the next six to eight weeks.”
The WHO also warned that it is too too soon to treat Omicron as a flu-like endemic illness. Senior emergency officer for Europe, Catherine Smallwood, said: “We still have a huge amount of uncertainty and a virus that is evolving quite quickly, imposing new challenges. We are certainly not at the point where we are able to call it endemic.
Mexico’s President Andr?s Manuel L?pez Obrador said he was hoarse and had a sore throat after testing positive for Covid for the second time. “It’s like a cold” he told reporters in a video message.
Germany has reported a daily rise of 45,690 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 322 deaths, according to the latest figures released by the Robert Koch Institute.
Germany’s health minister, Karl Lauterbach, has called England’s relatively lax Covid rules an “unethical bet”. He warned against copying England’s pandemic response.
Poland’s death toll from Covid has surpassed 100,000. health minister Adam Niedzielski announced the grim milestone, saying: “Today we can say it is another sad day, but especially so because we have passed the level of 100,000 Covid deaths.”

The central Chinese city of Anyang has ordered five million people to begin home confinement in a new lockdown to curb the spread of Omicron variant. Residents are not to leave their homes or drive cars on the roads, while all non-essential businesses have been closed and outbound travel is restricted, state news agency Xinhua reports.

Slovenia and Serbia have both reported record numbers of new cases amid the spread of Omicron, Reuters reports.

Slovenia, which has vaccinated 67.3% of its about 2 million-strong population with at least two dozes so far, reported 5,164 new cases, up 52% from a week before, according to the National Institute for Public Health.

Serbia reported 13,693 new cases and 22 deaths. The total number of registered cases in Serbia is 1,359,544, while 12,958 people have died since the outbreak nearly two years ago.