Category: Life & Style

The United Arab Emirates is transitioning to a 4.5-day work week for its government sector, thus becoming the first country in the world to have a working week shorter than five days. While Friday will be a half working day, Saturday and Sunday will be a holiday. Until now, the gulf nation gave offs on Fridays and Saturdays, which is followed in most Muslim countries.

State news agency WAM, which announced the news, said that the extended weekend comes as part of the UAE government’s efforts to boost work-life balance and enhance social wellbeing, while increasing performance to advance the UAE’s economic competitiveness.

The changes will come into effect from January 1. Working hours from Monday to Thursday will be 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and on Friday’s it will be 7:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Friday prayers and sermons will start at 1:15 p.m., and WAM said government employees can make arrangements to work from home on Fridays or arrange their working hours on a flexible time basis.

News has it that the private sector, schools and colleges may also follow suit soon. Dubai’s education authorities said that the private education sector in Dubai will be open in line with the recent UAE Government decision on the working week.

In less than a month since Omicron was first detected, some of the economies have started to suffer already. South Africa, where the variant originated, recently imposed and received travel bans which has affected the country’s tourism business.

Last year, Covid19 led to a loss of $4.5 trillion in the global tourism economy. In Africa, 50% of people working in the tourism sector lost their jobs. And just when normalcy was being restored, and tourists were slowly arriving to South Africa for its wildlife and biodiversity, the new variant arrived. A recent United Nations Conference on Trade and Development report estimates a further $1.7-$2.4 trillion could be lost from the global tourism sector by the end of 2021. In Africa, these losses are projected at $170-253 billion.

Around 15 million tourists visited South Africa in 2019, and that number shrunk to less than five million in 2020. With Omicron in sight, the country’s tourism industry could be in for another year of massive losses.

As of December 8, Omicron has been found in more than 15 countries including India. While it is more transmissible than the Delta variant, its symptoms are largely mild.

For the first time in history, there is more female population in India than men. According to the government’s National Family and Health Survey (NFHS), there are 1,020 women for every 1,000 men between 2019 and 2021. These numbers are historic for a country where female infanticide is still carried out and violence against women is rather common. Parents, too, are in favour of having sons over daughters, although this is now relevant only in rural India. 

The last survey in 2015 had found 991 women per 1000 men. According to the new report, rural India contributes the most, with 1,037 women for every 1,000 men, while urban India has a sex ratio of 985.

The data also showed India’s fertility rate fell to two children per woman, down from 2.2 in the last survey. The improvement in total sex ratio is positive and a step in the right direction but much still needs to be done towards gender equality, Population Foundation of India (PFI) health scientist Sanghamitra Singh told AFP.

India’s current population is around 1.3 billion people and UN projections say that the population will overtake that of China by the end of this decade.

The UK’s Health Minister, Sajid Javid on Monday told Parliament that the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 has now reached the community transmission level in various regions of England. As of December 7, a total of 336 cases of the variant have been reported in England. 261 of these cases are in England, while the rest are in Scotland and Wales. This also includes cases with no links to international travel, which helped to find out that community transmission across England can now be confirmed.

Mr. Javid also informed the Parliament that Nigeria has been added to the UK’s list of countries from where either entry is banned or a pre-departure PCR or lateral flow test has been made mandatory. The minister said that the country wants to take no chances, and strengthen its defences while scientists continue to study the new variant.

Experts have said Omicron is spreading more quickly than the Delta variant did. However, the severity of the variant, as per the study done on the patients who have tested positive, is relatively mild. Scientists and vaccine makers are still trying to figure out if the already available vaccines can provide protection from Omicron.

The United States health officials said on Sunday that the Omicron variant of Covid19 has spread to about one-third of US states, but the Delta version remains the bigger problem, with the majority of Covid-19 cases belonging to the earlier variant.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease official, told CNN that there is not a great deal of severity caused by Omicron, while also adding that it is early to draw conclusions and a lot more research on the variant is needed.

As per Reuters, at least 15 US states have reported Omicron cases so far: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin. Most of the cases have been reported among fully vaccinated individuals.

However, it is still the Delta variant that continues to wreak havoc in the country. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told ABC News that Delta accounts for 99.9% of the 90,000 to 100,000 new cases of Covid cases daily in the US.

Whether the already available vaccines will give protection from Omicron, and reduce the burden on the hospitals, is still being studied. But so far, no deaths have been reported from the new variant. 

In order to protect its citizens from Omicron, Covid’s new variant, the UK government has announced that those travelling into the country will need to show a negative coronavirus test before departure. A negative lateral flow or PCR test taken within the last 48 hours before boarding a flight has been made must. This is applicable to travellers from all countries above the age of 12. The UK government is also in talks to take further decisive action to contain the new variant.

Earlier, the UK earlier banned flights from South Africa while also putting 10 African countries on its red list. They only allowed UK and Irish citizens or UK residents in these countries to return home.

The variant has spread to several countries including India, where 21 cases have been reported as of December 5. Seven people had tested positive with the Omicron variant in Maharashtra, and in the latest development, nine more people from Jaipur have tested positive.

Whether the vaccines available in the market will give protection against Omicron is still being studied. But from the current cases, it has been understood that the symptoms of these variant are mostly mild.

Each country is releasing its own fresh guidelines to protect its citizens from Covid’s new variant Omicron. The USA on its part has extended requirements for travellers to wear masks while journeying – be it on airplanes, buses, trains or at the airport. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) had earlier extended the transportation mask order through January 18, and it has now been further extended through mid-March.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also said that it will soon impose stricter Covid-19 testing rules for passengers traveling to the country. The US confirmed its first Omicron case on Wednesday in a fully vaccinated person who returned to the country from South Africa on November 22 and tested positive a week later.

Apart from South Africa, other countries to report cases of the new variant are Australia, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Britain, Israel, Netherlands and Hong Kong.

Scientists are still trying to figure out the behaviour of the variant and if the already available vaccines will offer protection from it. While in most cases the symptoms have been mild and did not include drop in oxygen levels, the World Health Organisation has said that Omicron is highly transmissible.

In the wake of several countries shutting borders and imposing travel bans, the World Health Organization has warned blanket travel bans will not prevent the spread of Omicron, and will do more harm than good. As per the WHO, travel bans could dissuade countries from sharing data about the new virus. But it has also advised unvaccinated people to avoid traveling to areas where the virus is active.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was understandable for countries to seek protection for their citizens against a variant that has not been fully understood yet. But he asked for rational measures.

So far, 11 countries have reported cases of the virus, including Australia, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Britain, Israel, Netherlands and Hong Kong.

Japan has suspended all new flight bookings into the country for a period of one month and several other countries are following suit. Japan confirmed its first Omicron case on Tuesday, soon after which the decision to shut borders was taken.

Whether the new variant causes serious health implications or not is not known yet. But reports suggest that the symptoms are mostly mild, and no loss of smell or taste has been reported in any patient infected with Omicron.

Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Monday that the country will impose strict border measures and ban all incoming foreign travelers for one month due to Covid’s Omicron variant. However, international arrivals will be open for Japanese nationals or foreign residents returning to the country.

Japan is one of the few countries where the borders have been shut for tourists for most of the pandemic.

Earlier this month, the government of Japan had decided to allow business travellers, foreign students and other visa holders to enter the country. However, the decision has been overturned in the wake of Omicron slowly spreading around the world.

Tokyo had announced on Friday it would need travellers permitted to enter Japan from six southern African countries to quarantine in government-run facilities for 10 days on arrival. However, the list of countries has been extended to nine now. Those countries are South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique.

So far, more than 75% of Japan’s total population has been fully vaccinated. The country has been among those that managed the pandemic better than the rest. So far, Japan has recorded only 18000 Covid19 deaths. 

The surge in the number of new Covid19 cases in South Africa has led to worry among health experts, who feel that the new variant named omicron is highly transmissible. The latest Covid hotspot identified in the country is the Tshwane University of Technology, where several students tested positive. However, the variant is already active in all of South Africa’s nine provinces.

While the number of confirmed cases are still low compared to the 25,000 cases that were being confirmed regularly in the last wave, they have been increasing at a quick rate. Reportedly, the virus spread after some students partied in Pretoria and the number of cases increased from a few hundred to thousands. On Saturday, the country registered 3,220 new cases, most of which are in Gauteng. 90% of the cases in Gauteng are caused by omicron. Although there is no burden on the hospitals as yet, the rapid spike is a matter of worry.

The variant’s risks are not yet known but reports suggest that those who have already had Covid are the most susceptible to omicron. And whether the current vaccines are effective against it can also not be told any time soon.