Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban said he believes the fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country appears to have peaked.

Orban made the comment while appearing on public radio on Friday, Reuters reports.

He added that Hungary would start inoculating 5-11-year-old children against Covid-19 next Wednesday.

New coronavirus infections in South Korea exceeded 7,000 for the third consecutive day on Friday as hospitals are under increasing strain and authorities consider more drastic measures.

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said that the country could be forced to take “extraordinary” measures if the virus doesn’t slow soon.

Kim said:

If it becomes clear that we aren’t succeeding in reversing this crisis situation within the next few days, the government will have no other choice but to employ extraordinary anti-virus measures, including strong social distancing.”

Officials issued administrative orders requiring hospitals around the country to designate 2,000 more beds combined for Covid-19 treatment, Reuters reports.

Kim said the government will also speed up the administration of booster shots by shortening the interval period between the second and third vaccine injections from the current four or five months to three months starting next week.

Officials tightened restrictions starting Monday, banning private social gatherings of seven or more people in the greater capital area and requiring adults to verify their vaccination status at restaurants and other indoor venues. But Kim said such measures haven’t yet showed an effect in slowing transmissions.

Deputy Health Minister Lee Ki-il said officials may further reduce the limit on social gatherings and restore business-hour restrictions at restaurants and bars that were lifted in November if things continue to look bad next week.

“We will try our best to avoid a lockdown,” Lee said during a briefing.

If you’ve just joined us welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus outbreak.

I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be manning the Covid blog for the next short while before my colleagues in the UK take over.

First up, some news from Downing Street as British prime minister Boris Johnson faces a damaging revolt over planned Covid restrictions. Dozens of Tory backbenchers have threatened to rebel or abstain in fury over the proposed new plan B rules and the handling of the Christmas party scandal.

With at least 30 Conservative MPs already expected to vote against regulations on masks, home working and vaccine passports, and many more now vowing to stay away from Tuesday’s vote, the prime minister could be left relying on Labour support to win.

Countries in the European Union are expected to agree to limit to nine months the duration of Covid-19 certificates for travel around the bloc, three EU sources told Reuters.

The EU introduced Covid-19 passes in July to facilitate travel for people who are fully vaccinated against coronavirus, have recovered from the disease or have a negative PCR test.

Here is a snapshot of everything you might have missed:

• Australia will begin administering Covid-19 vaccines for children aged 5 to 11 from 10 January.
• US regulators have expanded eligibility for booster shots to 16- and 17-year-olds amid rising concerns about the new Omicron variant.
• European Union countries are expected to agree to limit to nine months the duration of Covid-19 certificates for travel around the bloc, three EU sources told Reuters.
• Dozens of US Navy medics have deployed to New Mexico to treat a Delta variant-fuelled surge in patients as part of a military operation to treat virus hotspots across Western and Midwest states.
• Singapore has detected its first locally transmitted case of the Omicron variant in a member of staff at the city state’s airport, authorities said, warning that more Omicron cases are likely to be detected.
• The Philippines will ban entry by people who have recently travelled to Portugal.
• Early hospital data from South Africa shows less than a third of patients admitted for Covid-19 during the latest wave linked to the Omicron variant are suffering severe illness, compared with two-thirds in the early stages of the last two waves.
• Malta will return to mandatory mask-wearing in outdoor and indoor spaces as from Saturday, Health Minister Chris Fearne said.
• Germany’s vaccination advisory commission recommended the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is given to children aged five to 11 with pre-existing conditions.
• The European Union’s drugs regulator said it could make sense to administer vaccine boosters as early as three months after the initial two-shot regimen.

The UK government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) says the number of Omicron infections in the UK is now “increasing rapidly” with emerging data from “broadly consistent” with early indications from South Africa.

Scientific experts and government officials met via video teleconference hosted by the Royal Society of Medicine on Thursday.

According to minutes taken from the conference, the group said:

The spread of Omicron in the UK appears to be following a similar trajectory to that seen in South Africa; though there are many differences between the UK and South Africa it will remain important to monitor the situation there. Early verbal reports indicate that hospitalisations due to Omicron are now increasing in South Africa.

South Africa’s minister of health Dr Joe Phaahla and deputy minister of health Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo will convene a virtual media briefing on the unfolding Covid situation in the nation.

The briefing is set to begin shortly and will address government efforts in the fight against Covid-19 and the national vaccination rollout programme.

We will bring you all the relevant new lines as they come in.

India has just released their daily Covid numbers.

Another 8,503 new coronavirus cases were reported over the past 24 hours.

A further 624 deaths were also recorded, according to the latest ministry of health data.

Australia’s Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, announced earlier today the decision to approve vaccination for children aged five to 11 to receive the Pfizer Covid vaccine from 10 January.

The move comes after the federal government accepted a recommendation for its use from immunisation experts.

Watch the video detailing the announcement below.

Germany has just released some new Covid numbers.

The European nation reported another 61,288 new daily coronavirus cases for the past 24 hours and 484 deaths, the Robert Koch Institute reports.

Asian shares slipped and the US dollar held firm on Friday as traders edged away from riskier assets amid renewed concerns about Covid-19 and ahead of key US inflation data that could set direction on Federal Reserve rates, Reuters reports.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.4% and Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.5%.

Overnight the S&P 500 lost 0.72% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.71%. S&P 500 futures rose 0.14% in Asian hours.

Shares and risk-friendly currencies had performed well earlier in the week, with MSCI’s regional benchmark posting its best day in two months on Tuesday, helped by indications the Omicron strain of the new coronavirus might not be as economically disruptive as first feared.

“Then, as we got towards the end of the week the fact that Europe was much more clearly moving into a sort of lockdown light and cases are going up, and Covid-19 case numbers in the US are starting to ratchet up flipped things a little bit,” said Rob Carnell, head of research Asia Pacific at ING.

“Also there is a slight sense of ‘let’s not have too much risk on the table for the weekend’. Of course, there is CPI out in the US – but I think we’ve all woken up to the fact that there is inflation in the US now,” he added.

Speaking of the United States, here is a detailed state-by-state map showing the number of confirmed Covid-19 deaths per 100,000 Americans.

Map numbers shown below are from Johns Hopkins University.

Some disturbing news has just emerged from California in the United States.

The president of California’s medical board, which issues medical licenses and disciplines doctors, says a group of anti-vaccine activists stalked her at home and followed her to her office, the Associated Press reports.

Kristina Lawson, a former mayor of Walnut Creek who was appointed to the board by former Governor Jerry Brown, was reportedly confronted by four men in a dark parking garage in what she described as a terrifying experience.

Lawson tweeted:

On Monday, I was followed and confronted by a group that peddles medical disinformation, promotes fake Covid-19 treatments, and is under investigation by Congress for stealing millions of dollars from consumers. It was a terrifying experience.”

“They watched my daughter drive herself to school and watched me walk out of my house, get in my car, and take my two kids to school.”

The medical board president said she grew concerned on Monday after she noticed the people in a white SUV parked near her home and saw someone flying a drone over her house.

The white SUV then followed her to work and parked “head-to-head” with her car in a parking garage and when she left the office building and entered the parking garage later that evening, four men jumped out of the SUV with cameras and recording equipment and confronted her, Lawson alleged.

“Instead, they ambushed me in a dark parking garage when they suspected I would be alone,” she added.

Lawson said the people identified themselves as representing America’s Frontline Doctors, led by Simone Gold, a Beverly Hills doctor who was arrested during the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol. The group criticises the Covid-19 vaccine and has been widely discredited for spreading disinformation about the coronavirus and unproven treatments.

Lawson contacted Walnut Creek Police. “Like other Californians who believe in both science and fair play, I will not be intimidated,” she said.

Singapore has detected its first locally transmitted case of the Omicron variant in a member of staff at the city state’s airport, authorities said late on Thursday, warning that more Omicron cases are likely to be detected.

The 24-year-old Singaporean woman, who works in a service role in the airport, “may have interacted with transit passengers from Omicron-affected countries,” the health ministry said in a statement, Reuters reports.

She tested preliminarily positive for Omicron as a part of the routine testing for frontline workers, it said, noting she was fully vaccinated and asymptomatic.

A second Omicron case reported on Tuesday was a traveller from Germany. Both of individuals had received vaccine booster shots, the health ministry said.

The cases are currently pending further genome sequencing to confirm the variant. Singapore had previously detected three Omicron cases, all found in overseas travellers.

The health ministry said:

Given its high transmissibility and spread to many parts of the world, we should expect to find more Omicron cases at our borders and also within our community.”

Singapore has vaccinated 96% of its eligible population and authorities are urging the public to get booster shots amid concerns over the Omicron variant.

Some Covid stats from South Korea has just landed.

The south Asian country recorded 7,022 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours.

A further 53 deaths were also reported, taking the nationwide cumulative death toll to 4,130.

A total of 83.5 % of the population has received at least one Covid vaccination dose and 81 % are fully vaccinated.

Thailand has also reported another 4,193 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours.

A further 28 deaths were also reported, taking the nationwide cumulative death toll to 4,130.