Category: Life & Style

Tourists from Singapore will not be allowed to travel to Italy for leisure from 16 December until January 31 next year. The Italian embassy said its health ministry has moved Singapore and Brunei onto a list of countries deemed to be of higher risk of Covid-19 infections, but the embassy did not specify the reason for changing Singapore’s risk classification. In fact, Covid cases in Singapore have reduced in recent weeks, down from a high of more than 4,600 on October 27 to less than 500 a day this week.

Only those travellers from Singapore will be allowed who are traveling for work, health or study reasons, out of absolute urgency or to return to their homes; while exemptions can be granted in specific cases, including if the person is an EU citizen.

This move doesn’t affect Singapore’s unilateral vaccinated travel lane from Italy. Eligible travellers who are in Italy will still be able to use the program to enter Singapore without having to self-isolate for days.

Currently, the Omicron variant has been spreading rapidly and the World Health Organisation has asked countries to take steps to curb the spread.

Citizens in Canada have been advised by their government to avoid foreign travel over the Christmas holidays, saying the Omicron variant of Covid “makes us fear the worst,” including soaring infections and travel disruptions.

If the cases keep rising, public health restrictions will be imposed soon, while the travel advisory will be re-evaluated in four weeks. Covid testing of travellers at Canadian airports will be increased. Last year during the year-end holiday season, all arriving travellers to Canada were required to quarantine for 14 days.

Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told a news conference that now is not the time to travel because the rapid spread of the Covid variant on the global scale is making the government apprehensive. Mr Duclos also said that the information currently available suggests a significant resurgence of infections, even without taking into account the new Omicron variant.

Earlier at an emergency meeting, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had proposed closing the border, but the measure was roundly rejected by provincial leaders.

The World Health Organization has also warned countries about the rapid spread of the variant, asking them to try to impose measures to slow its spread.

Public health authorities in Denmark and Norway on Monday released worrisome projections about the omicron variant of covid19 in their respective countries. As per the predictions, the variant will see a rapid spike in both countries in the coming days, potentially increasing pressure on hospitals. While it is still not clear if the variant leads to severe diseases, the release says that hospitals are likely to be filled to capacity even if the symptoms are mild.

The variant has largely spread to several countries in the world. Researchers testing Covid samples in the US have recorded a rapid rise in cases with a mutation that is characteristic of the Omicron variant. While scientists have said that the variant can partially evade existing immune defenses, they are still researching the severity of the virus.

In India, too, the variant has been spreading at an unprecedented rate. Maharashtra is currently the worst-hit state, where the tally of Omicron cases is now 28.

While some researchers say that the vaccines already available in the market will provide some bit of protection from Omicron, others say that the efficacy of the vaccine is now declining for all variants.

21 years after Lara Dutta was crowned Miss Universe in 2000, the title is back to India. Harnaaz Sandhu has won the 2021 edition of the beauty pageant which was held in Eilat, Israel. In winning the crown, the 21-year-old from Punjab edged out Paraguay’s Nadia Ferreira and South Africa’s Lalela Mswane. She was presented the crown by Andrea Meza, former Miss Universe 2020 from Mexico.

During the final question and answer round, Ms Sandhu was asked what advice she would give to young women on how to deal with the pressures they face. In her response, she said that the biggest pressure the youth of today is facing is to believe in themselves, and that they need to stop comparing themselves with others and talk about more important things that are happening worldwide.

The young model has previously won the Miss Diva 2021, Femina Miss India Punjab 2019 and was placed in the Top 12 at Femina Miss India 2019. Besides that, she has also worked in Punjabi films like “Yaara Diyan Poo Baran” and “Bai Ji Kuttange”. On the academic front, she is pursuing her master’s degree in public administration.

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.