soldiers here while the water line is, are making serious effort in order to drop the 10 year old man. ah, the news. ready protesters sees the air polls of cassock stands, biggest city al marty despite the president threatening a tough response. 20 government rallies. ah, i'm sam is a dan. this is al jazeera alive from dell hall. so coming up hong kong bands,

flights from 8th countries, including the u. s and u. k. as a grapples with an outbreak of the army kron corona, virus variant uproar in the french parliament after controversial remarks by the president about the unvaccinated today is about acknowledgment about being seen and heard and relief for calendars. indigenous people whose children were taken away and put on the state care was the government announces billions in compensation. ah, now protest is in cassock. sam have seized the capital al marty's airport bats, despite the president threatening a tough response. all that came after the worst on rest in more than a decade, the protest were triggered by arise and the price of fuel. but there are demands for broader reforms. catello purse or the an reports

seems like these are we are in constant hotels ever wanted in civil city region for an increase in fuel prices had spread across the country, wyoming pensions, her food, particularly in the lightest city. moody, with reports of the fire in gunshot, heard the mayor's office were demonstrators trying to storm the building earlier in the week. oh, would begin as putin seconds. fuel prices has turned into a wider comp, an accountability. quickly take a look at wiring a war. people started calling, birth free elections, of local officials are started going for the ouster about top officials and the government. so, you know, they're, they're working to get this log kind of under control as much as they can. it's gonna hurt the reputation because a government cost on has always been fairly stable. the cost of

liquid fi, petroleum gas, or l p g, which is widely used as car fuel, more than double to $0.20 a leader when the government lived the price camps. huh. but i mean, political pressure, the government of the oil, which countries the price will go back to $0.11 a leader in monkeys. dow in the west and another provinces. faced with a minimum wage of less than a $100.00 a month, protest her say the increase is unacceptable. classic sounds president sacked his cabinet and appointed a new acting prime minister. now he's calling for the unrest to stone resume, but god will read me when he calls to attack, civilian and military offices are completely illegal and it is a crime and that will be punished. pow wow. will not fall. what we need is not conflict, but mutual trust and dialog on new conflict. the government has argued lpg subsidies are unsustainable in the long term bud. it's plant

a phase i'll price caps over 3 years, is being fiercely resisted the central asian country, long known in the region for its political stability, now faces widespread unrest. katia lopez of the young. and what is your? hong kong is banning flights from 8 countries, including australia, the u. s, and the u. k. as it battles rising cove 19 cases. it's also imposing a raft of new restrictions from friday, including shopping, entertainment, venues, jims and clubs. officials fear the on the chron, barron could be spreading undetected through the community dance while you go, gone, gone back out, or is already given the very dire situation of the pandemic. we have to grasp very critical moment. we have to contain depend demik to ensure that there will not be a major outbreak in the community again. fine, now i think we are realizing omicron is a highly transmissible variant. so free when we will be able to contain the spread of all micron in society. the measures i'm going to announce or may be the most

decisive, rapid targeted and comprehensive we have had for the past 2 years and for a climate has more from hong kong. now this is certainly the most extensive that we've seen and it really goes to show the extent of that. uh, the hong kong government is keen on stamping out alma crohn. i spoke to a top epidemiologist in hong kong advisor. ivan hung earlier. he said that these kind of, that the measures were very necessary in order to keep the virus of bay and to really by the government time, because vaccination rates aren't at where they want them to be. they hang around 70 percent. but if you look at the only population over 80, that's only around 20 percent. so this is about buying time to boost those rights. the hong kong government had planned a to introduce these measures next month, but they have been brought forward and it, let's not forget it's chinese new year, 3 weeks away from now. so these measures are supposed be implemented for 2 weeks. chinese new year is looking at bit touch and go for now,

but the hope is is that people will still be able to meet, at least for some kind of festivities to welcome in the new year. the french parliament was suspended overnight after president emmanuel. my call made controversial remarks targeting people who haven't been vaccinated. the government is trying to push through bills that would make vaccination, compulsory to access public fund news dash buffer with more from paris. now. friend president emmanuel macross, the comments to the french newspaper, the paris. yeah. suddenly causing quite a stir here from the french president was being interviewed about his strategy for the crisis. the french government very much targeting on vaccinated people. things vaccination is the way out of the crisis. but my cro in this interview called on vaccinated people irresponsible, effectively saying that they weren't being decent citizens. he also then went on to

say that he was going to try and hassle unvaccinated people as much as possible. but the word he actually used in french was a fall stronger it has to scatter logical overtones and the sarge has been described as a vulgar, unseemly by a number of opposition. m p. 's. in fact, i think the comments filtered through and became public during a parliamentary debate and peace with debating the government's plans to try and push through a new vaccine pulse an m p 's. during that debate, then of voice, their protest over macros commands the leader of the far right and the school policy. marine the pen said the mike always being on presidential other said his words showed his brutality of contempt for ordinary people that he was being cool. so my comments, sony, causing a lot of control see so much. so in fact, that that parliamentary debate had to be suspended at 2 o'clock in the morning. now

the by the administration is finalizing a contract on 500000000 at home test kids to ease the cobra. 1900 testing crisis is pandemic response team will be outlining its plans shortly. crossover now to alan fischer has more from washington d. c. so the heat is on to get those testing kit sorted out in a very difficult situation right now for code in the us. right. so i was speaking to someone this morning who said that they'd spent yesterday calling round all the pharmacies in washington dc, trying to find an at home test, think it couldn't get a single one. i know someone just in the suburbs of virginia just across the way from washington d. c, who managed to get a testing kit but could only get one and there's 4 in their family. so there was no way that they be able to do testing for the whole family. it is a real problem and it's something that the biden administration has managed to

avoid a lot of criticism. forbes is clearly a feeling on their part. the big problem is, of course, that we're seeing a surgeon cases. we were told this would happen in the run up to christmas and new year. that was, we get into 2022. there will be a surgeon cases, 1000000 cases across the united states on monday, 800000 on tuesday. you think hold on a 2nd. does that mean things are getting better, but if you look at the 70 average, it's 553007 174 according to johns hopkins, which is the highest 70 average. since corona virus started to be tracked here in the united states, so they've got to deal with the testing issue. they've also got to decide what they're going to do about schools. because of course, in the sub largest school district, here in the united states in chicago, teachers, they say they're not going back until they get guarantees that they'll be safe, their pupils will be safe, and the families of pupils will be safe. so how's, are going to be a testing regime there as well,

and there are smaller incidents like that all across the united states. this is a significant problem. we also know that at the supreme court, the justices there have received their booster. we were told that because they will start hearing in person hearings this week on some important cases, including the abortion, k stone and mississippi. so the supreme court wanted us to know that the justices well protected, which is interesting because the supreme court has also come down, in some cases against my mandates, which is the bite then ministration is very much keen on implementing. but we're seeing a search across the country and interestingly enough, where no told that 95 percent of the cases here in the united states that are being reported are all on the chrome or i will leave it there. thanks so much. alan fisher the us has impose sanctions on bosnian serb leader miller. i dont dick washington accuses him of corrupt activities that threatened to destabilize the

region and undermine the peace accord. both near has been facing its biggest political crisis since the war in the 1900 ninety's dotted threatened separation of sub dominated areas from balls near the chief of the us capital police says lessons have been learned and the forces made significant changes after last year. attack on the capital building j thomas mango was testifying in front of the senate committee, investigating police actions during the january 6 riots. 5 people were killed during the attack, including a police officer. a congressional report found multiple intelligence failures, as well as a lack of proper equipment and training for capital police officers. events of january 6th did expose critical departmental failures and deficiencies with operational planning, intelligence, staffing, training, and equipment. i'm pleased to report that we have addressed a significant portion of the many recommendations issue to the department. in fact,

of the more 100 recommendations issued by the inspector general, we have implemented and are addressing over 90 of them live now to john henry at the capital building in washington d. c. so john, how those comments going down to what's become a very divided vertical landscape in the us? well mangan has been on before the committee for about an hour and a half now, and the question he keeps getting asked is, what do we do wrong on january 6th of last year? and what can we do better now? and he answered that, saying we didn't have the people, we didn't have the intelligence, we weren't prepared as we should be. the next time we are tested, we will not be making those same mistakes. he says the force has made a lot of progress. there still more than $400.00 officers too short of their new beefed up goal. but he says that they are well on the weight of ad. they've improved intelligence. they've hired a secret service, a leader who has helped them coordinate their intelligence because one of the

problems here on january 6th of last year was that information that was being held by leaders wasn't getting to the guys at the frontline who were, were taking on those protesters and often the people who were doing that were just in plain clothes. they weren't in riot here, there were 75 percent of the officers who were involved. there were simply wearing their regular uniforms. ultimately the inspector general of the department decided they were outmanned outmaneuvered and had insufficient challenges and weren't distributing that well enough because they did have warnings that there was gonna be a crowd coming to the capital. and i can tell you from being outside of the capital when that happened last year, that some of those writers were actually geared up better than the police that they were combating. so the committee has also come up with a bunch of suggestions, 5 of them that it wanted bangor to address. those are training and equipment, planning for special events as civil disturbance unit and new beefed up civil

disturbance unit to respond to events just like this. and consolidation of the intelligence and then better communications in an incident like this manner says he's dealt with all of those things. he says there's still work to do. but if something were to happen tomorrow, he says the force would be able to respond to it. now, of course, a $150.00 officers were injured. there was a officer, brian sickening was killed in that event. and he says he's looking forward to the next event. and he said, they're prepared. i will leave that. thanks so much john hendrick. i let's thank you now to the coven, 19 response team. that's giving it's briefing in washington dc. let's miss lyn treatments available. now that at any point during the pandemic, and yesterday, the president, now cities instructed the team to double the u. s. government purchase of the pfizer antiviral pill from 10000000 treatment courses to 20000000.

in addition, we're working with pfizer to accelerate the delivery of these pills. and we'll now have the 1st 10000000 treatment cycles courses by the end of june. instead of the end of september, these pills can dramatically decrease hospitalizations and deaths. and our game changer with the potential to alter the impact of coven on people. and on our nation. bottom line, we have the tools we need to manage this search. and i'm a con cases. with that, i'll turn it over to dr. wilensky. dr. wilensky. thank you, jeff, and good morning everyone. i like to start by walking you through today's data. the current 7 day daily average of cases is about $491700.00 cases per day, an increase of about 98 percent from the previous week. the 7 day average of hospital admissions is about $14800.00 per day, and the increase of about 63 percent over the previous week. and the 70 average of

daily deaths are about $1200.00 per day, which is an increase of about 5 percent over the prior week. over the last several weeks sent over the holidays, we have seen a significant and rapid increase in coven 19 cases. this increase for flex both cases caused by the delta variant, and more importantly now cases surging from the oma crown variance. over the past month, we have seen the percentage of omicron cases increase, and the percentage of delta cases decrease based on cbc genomics sequencing. we now estimate that omar crime represents about 95 percent of cases in the country and delta represents the remaining 5 percent of the cases. the sharp rise in cases and the emergence of the more transmissible omicron variant emphasizes the importance of vaccinations and boosters. this week, after a made several vaccine authorizations and cdc followed these authorizations by

making additional vaccine recommendations. first, cdc authorized f d. a authorized and cdc recommended shortening the window in which people who received the pfizer covered 19 vaccine can get a booster guess from 6 months to 5 months. second, sta authorized, and cdc recommended that children ages $5.00 to $11.00 who are moderately or severely immunocompromised, should get an additional primary shopped of the visor, cove at 19 vaccine $28.00 days after their 2nd shot to provide them additional protection. and today, cdc, the advisory committee on immunization practices is meeting to discuss boosters for those 12 to 15 years old, after f da's authorization on monday. i look forward to listening to the committee's discussion that will take place this afternoon. currents data demonstrate that receiving a booster dose is critical to provide protection against coven 19,

and the oma con variance. cdc surveillance data and other studies from around the world have demonstrated the benefit of a booster dose after receiving only a primary series. including decreased risk of infection, severe disease, and death caused by cough at 19, in large national studies from israel. comparing those who are boosted with those who are fully vaccinated, a booster dose decreased infection by 10 times in all age groups. similarly in those studies boosters resulted in a decrease in severe disease and individuals over 60 years old i 18 times and decreased severe disease and people age 40 to 59 years old by 22 times. and people who received a booster shot had 90 percent lower mortality due to coven 19 than those who did not receive a booster shot. while these studies were done,

when delta was the dominant variance in israel, we expect to see a similar trend of increased protection over those who are boosted with all micron . vaccines and boosters are protecting people from the severe and tragic outcomes that occur can occur from cov 19 infection. we're asking everyone to follow these 4 steps, get vaccinated and get boosted. if you are eligible. wear a mask. stay home when you're sick and take a test if you have symptoms or, or looking for greater extra reassurance before you gather with others. so at that, thank you. i will now turn things over to dr. katya. thank you very much, dr. lensky. what i'd like to do of the next couple of minutes is talk about the arm, a kron variant and some concerns, particularly in the area of severity of disease. if i can have the 1st slide, i'm going to focus predominantly on severity. but let me just make a few comments to underscore. many of the things that doctor will ask, he said,

1st of all, without a doubt, unequivocally, we are dealing with a highly highly transmissible variant that spreads rapidly. the data are overwhelming in that regard. number 2 immune evasion, omicron evades immune vaccine protection against symptomatic disease and to some extent to severe disease. however, as underscored by doctor will and ski again, laboratory and clinical data indicate that booster shots reconstitute vaccine protection even against armor chron. let's spend a moment now on severity of disease, which is less likely that army tribal cause severe disease. i'm going to give you data from 4 separate sources, just to underscore that then to end with a caveat, next slide. these are data from south africa. if you look at the 3 variance in blue, red and yellow with our micron being yellow, and take a look at admissions,

oxygen necessary, a necessity, severe disease, and death. in each case, the yellow bar is significantly less than the red and the blue bar which represent beta and delta next slide. if you look at data from the united kingdom, from 3 separate sources, the u. k. security agency, the university of edinburgh, scotland, and imperial college. each of these show that in various parameters of des, severity, armor chron appears to be less than delta next slide. although this data is the, it more preliminary, but nonetheless, indications from houston, texas, indicate that we are seeing similar situations here in the united states. next slide, the slide is from canada. again, showing that the risk of hospitalizations or death was 65 percent lower among m a

crime compared to delta. and the risk of intensive care was 83 percent next slide. if you go now to in vitro animals studies, these are interesting. but remember, there is always a caviar associated with animals studies and a number of studies, ones that have done individually and cooled in my son hamster models. it was shown that the virus of our micron proliferates very well in the upper air way in bronchitis. but actually very poorly in the lungs, which actually goes along with those improve goes along with the concept that you have a very transmissible virus with upper airway secretion. but a virus that has less pathogenic city in the long next slide. so let's look at the bottom line of what i said, and i'll get to the caveat in a moment. multiple sources of now preliminary data indicate

a decrease decrease severity with i'm a crime. however, we really do need more definitive assessment of severity with longer term follow up here and in different countries. but the big caveat is we should not be complacent. since the increased transmitter ability of varian may be out of armor chron, might be overridden by the sheer volume of the number of cases that may be of reduced severity, but could still stress our hospital system. because a certain proportion of a large volume of cases, no matter what a going to be severe. so don't take this as a signal that we can pull back from the recommendations that you just heard from doctor will lensky about the need for vaccination, for booster in for wearing masks and all the other cdc recommendations. so let me

close with the final slide. just to word about children, because we're getting asked about that. the arm, a kron very and so far appears to be less severe than the delta. but remember the caviar, rapid community of spread is seeing larger numbers of children being hospitalized. again, mostly among the unvaccinated and about vaccination. just to refresh your memory, the pfizer by when tech is now authorized and recommended for children from 5 to 17, children from 12 to 17, can get a booster. the f. d, a authorized 12 to 15 and his doctor, one ascii said to day the a c i p will meet about that for recommendation. and finally, a question that many ask, and i'm sure many reporters who have children are asking this. what about kids from 6 months to 5 years? those still, these are ongoing now to get the right dosage regimen to get to where we want to be

unlikely the clinical trial or ongoing and in individuals less than 5 years. hopefully in the 1st half. hopefully towards the early part of the 1st half, we may have some information so that we can vaccinate children of that age. i'll stop there and back to you, jeff. well, thank you doctors, and with that, let's open it up for some questions. kevin. thanks jeff. we have a lot of questions today. please keep your questions to one question. we'll get there as many as we can. first, let's go to jenny bell. covered 19 task force briefing, thereby, anthony foutz, you the chief medical vices, the president, outlining some of the lays his daughter on the alma crohn van, which in these words appears to be less harmful than the delta so far as well as rachelle, valencia, the director of center of disease control and prevention, urging people to do 4 things get vaccinated, get that booster shot way,

a mask and test. we can get some more now from allen fisheries following the story from washington d. c. that we also allen a glimmer of good hope. there some good news is that we can say at least about 5 part of it. why don't us the it is good news when you hear that. are there no reporting $491000.00 cases per day, which is up 90 percent compared to last week. the 14000 hospital admissions, which is up 63 percent compared to last week. and 1200 deaths, which is up 5 percent that that number is significantly lower because they are saying that if you are vaccinated and you're boosted at the, the effects of omicron aren't quite so bad. but here's the warning from antony, thought you that you heard them say just they're in the briefing. look, they're still a lot of cases. this is a hugely transmittal form of the virus. and it means that more people are going to

the hospital. and of course we've seen that hospital systems across the country, those who deal with the impact of this are struggling because the to have got to isolate if they're in close contact with someone from co, with covered or the test positive as well. so while it looks as if or micron isn't quite as dangerous as others, and we're seeing that with figures that he quoted from south africa and also the united states were hospital admissions. a don't because of of omicron that breathing issues are down and debts are all down. although there's a lack of severity, a lot of cases are still severe enough that they've got to go to hospital. and that is putting a huge strain on hospitals across the united states. it's interesting, the ritual lensky from the cdc, the centers for disease control and seeing go and get tested, getting tests is a real difficulty here in the united states. they're hoping to increase the numbers and that should improve over the coming weeks. but that doesn't lift the issue.

just know we're, we're seeing people lining up in sub 0 temperatures like they're doing not far from here in washington, d. c. to try and get a taste simply because they're not available in pharmacy. so there may be some good news and the fact that omicron isn't quite as lethal as the delta various. but it's still putting a huge strain on all sorts of systems across the united states. all right, thanks so much alan fish, other now, more on the, on the crown and the kind of virus variant symptoms make it very different to its predisposes. the south african doctor who 1st alerted the authorities to the strain has said muscle like fatigue. scratchy throat and night sweats are common symptoms . while patients with previous parents reported loss of taste and smell, that doesn't seem to appear to be the case with the crohn. there's also no major dropping oxygen levels in the lungs. the world health organization says on the con,

appears to affect the upper respiratory tract. instead. dr patrick tank is the division chief of micro biology. it says that medicine here in carter. he explains why the severity of the symptoms of on the car will be different in each country. i think the effects of the growing barren are going to be different in different countries and maybe given different within different regions of our country because of the heterogeneity of them unity in the population. so if you're in a country with a higher vaccination rate and, and maybe a recent wave of a delta infection, so that everyone has already high levels of preexisting community been effective on the car to be different. then in a region or a country that has the vaccination and, and has not had the effect of the delta v area in the recent time. so i think there is going to be some difference that strategy to approach the different country

depending on the situation in which they are in. but overall we have to pay that, that we are lucky with this barrier compared to the previous period. there is absolutely no reason why the virus would want to evolve into last year or even a more severe version of itself because that's not really linked. he, that he was deb alicia. and so we are very lucky that the hiring transmissible virus is also that you're going to vary your country that's already been hit by a large on conway. and the majority is that the rate of transmission and rate that these in your country are higher within the people that are coming in and then make no, no sense to restrict travel into your country when other places have lower rates, the transmission. and also if you have high levels of immunity either from delta infection, from homer, con infection and vaccination,

then the virus on on hea. health will not be back. your.