A case of Omicron detected in Beijing

A case of Omicron has been detected in Beijing, authorities in the Chinese capital announced on Saturday, where the Winter Olympics are to open on February 4, as the country battles several outbreaks of the highly contagious variant of the coronavirus.

This announcement comes after Zhuhai, a coastal city of 2.4 million inhabitants in the south-east of the country, near Macao, imposed travel restrictions, following the discovery of seven cases of contamination by the Omicron variant.

Millions of Chinese have been ordered to stay home in recent weeks, dozens of domestic flights have been canceled and entire factories closed as authorities seek to stem the outbreak ahead of the Olympics.

Boris Johnson: "Friday aperitifs" in Downing Street

Aperitifs were organized every Friday in Downing Street during confinement, says the British daily The Mirror, extending the list of accusations against British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The curator is accused of having participated in several festivities during confinements in the midst of a health crisis.

The protest against him is rumbling, including in the ranks of the Conservatives.

Djokovic, "public danger"

For the second time in ten days, Novak Djokovic has been returned to administrative detention in Melbourne.

The Australian Immigration Minister had canceled his visa the day before, arguing that the world number one tennis player not vaccinated against Covid-19 constitutes a "public danger".

"His presence in Australia could encourage anti-vaccination sentiment," he said.

"The Australian Open is much more important than any player," retorted his rival, Rafael Nadal, who does not hide his annoyance two days before the opening of the Australian Open.

France: deactivated passes, opponents in the street

"Resistant Djokovic", "Freedom", "No to the vaccine": opponents of the health pass, which will become a vaccine pass, demonstrated on Saturday in France, the same day when many deactivations were to take place for lack of vaccine recall anti covid.

A few hours before these parades, the deputies adopted in the night the controversial bill transforming the health pass into a vaccination pass at second reading.

The debates resumed in the Senate, before a final vote of the National Assembly on Sunday afternoon.

In the absence of an anti-Covid reminder, tens of thousands of health passes were to be deactivated on Saturday, a deadline set in November.

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© 2022 AFP