Covid news – latest: Biden concerned over China’s Covid handling as UK ‘not prepared for new wave’

People have been urged to wear face coverings and remain at home if feeling unwell, as an already crisis-stricken NHS faces down multiple waves of winter illnesses.

With children returning to school at a time when high levels of flu, Covid-19 and scarlet fever are all being reported, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued fresh guidance in a bid to minimise the diseases’ spread.

Parents have been urged to keep children at home if they are unwell and have a fever, with adults told to only go out if necessary and wear face coverings if they are ill and avoid visiting vulnerable people.

A new Covid-19 subvariant, XBB.1.5, has revived concern about the spread of the virus in the UK this January.

A relative of Omicron, XBB.1.5 was first detected in the state of New York in October 2022 and already accounts for more than 40 per cent of American cases.

The variant has since been detected in the UK and is thought to constitute at least 4 per cent of Covid viruses being sequenced.

Mike Ryan, the World Health Organisation’s emergencies director, told a media briefing yesterday that current numbers being published from China under-represent hospital admissions, intensive care unit patients and deaths.

Earlier WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he understood why many countries have imposed testing restrictions on passengers coming from China given the lack of information from the Chinese government about the outbreak.“

WHO is concerned about the risk to life in China and has reiterated the importance of vaccination, including booster doses to protect against hospitalisation, severe disease and death,” he said.

Fears have been raised as new offshoots of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant have caused cases to surge in countries around the world.

Omicron relatives XBB and XBB.1.5 have been reported in several nations, including the UK, leading British health officials to urge the take-up of Covid vaccines and other protections against the virus.

On Tuesday, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) advised Britons to stay at home when feeling unwell or wear face coverings when going outside in a bid to stem the risk of a new Covid wave.

New Covid strains are sparking fresh health concerns across the globe as the world welcomes 2023.

Descendants of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant – XBB and XBB.1.5 – have seen a surge in cases in many countries over winter.

But what exactly are they?

Pharmacy leaders have warned about a shortage of cough and cold medicines, with some chemists “struggling to obtain the very basic supplies”.

Throat lozenges, cough mixtures and some painkillers are among the over-the-counter medicines in short supply, according to the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies.

The industry group warned of supply issues of both branded and unbranded medicines to treat seasonal illnesses.

Minutes after midnight on 1 January 2020, I cheerfully tweeted that the new decade would be the best in human history for travellers. All the evidence pointed that way.

Since the start of the Jumbo Jet age half a century earlier, things had only got better. Horizons had relentlessly widened, costs had fallen steadily in real terms and safety had improved almost immeasurably.

The travel business is ever-optimistic, and I paid little heed to a foreign news story The Independent had broken the previous afternoon, which began: “Health chiefs in China are investigating an outbreak of a respiratory illness.”

US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he was concerned by how China was handling the Covid-19 pandemic.

China’s Covid-19 data is not giving an accurate picture of the situation there.

It apparently under represents the number of hospitalisations and deaths from the disease, a senior official at the World Health Organization said earlier in the day.

The UK Health Security Agency had said that pharmacists are “struggling to obtain the very basic, most common cold and flu medicine.”

Speaking to the PA news agency, chief executive Leyla Hannbeck explained: “This isn’t just the branded medicines, it is also simple things like throat lozenges, cough mixtures or pain killers – particularly the ones that are soluble.

“The demand has been high because this season we’ve seen higher cases of colds and flu and people are obviously trying very hard to look after themselves and making sure that they use the relevant products to manage the symptoms.

“And that has led to a shortage of these products in terms of us not being able to obtain them.”

Ms Hannbeck added: “But this is part of a bigger issue – from HRT to antibiotics to this, we are constantly finding ourselves in a situation when as soon as the demand for something goes up we are struggling with the supply.

“Unfortunately part of that is a lack of planning by officials (at the Department of Health and Social Care) in terms of foreseeing the problems and trying to plan in advance to sort it.”