December 2022

Italy is making coronavirus tests for visitors from China mandatory following an explosion in cases in China, the health minister said Wednesday. “I have ordered mandatory COVID-19 antigenic swabs, and related virus sequencing, for all passengers coming from China and transiting through Italy,” minister Orazio Schillaci said. The measure was “essential to ensure the surveillance and identification of any variants of the virus in order to protect the Italian population”, he said. Coronavirus infections have surged in China as it unwinds hardline controls that had torpedoed the economy and sparked nationwide protests. The Italian northern region of Lombardy introduced screening

Globally, the number of weekly cases remained stable during the week of 12-18th Dec compared to the week before. While cases continue to decline in the WHO South-East Asian region in the same period (-36%) the Western Pacific Region has seen a 8% increase. Some countries with a notable increase in new cases are the republic of Korea, Japan, and China (WHO). Omicron is the dominant variant of concern, accounting for nearly all of the publicly shared sequences. Among Omicron sublineages, BA.5 and descendant lineages are dominating, though their prevalence is decreasing. Nationally, about 2 million cases and 29,000 deaths