year, during a period in time very similar to now when a variant was spreading through the country. hundreds of people were dying a day, and the allegation is that the prime minister s senior staff were holding christmas parties inside downing street, violating rules and restrictions. so this here is yet another strike towards prime minister boris johnson and gives us an indication of his weak leadership at a very critical moment. what we don t know yet is whether this is a protest vote or really shifting sand here for the conservative party. thank you very much, ladies. great to have you on the show this morning. of course we ll have much more ahead on the pandemic, including dr. sanjay gupta s report on which vaccines health experts prefer. steve jang is live in beijing with an update on covid cases spreading across australia s new south wales. alex thomas joins me in london with the latest premier league games being canceled because, of course, the rise of the covid-19. now, i w
million vaccine doses. they re trying to at least, spending over $2.5 billion on that to try and ensure that they have enough to get through the first quarter of 2022. they ve said that that booster shot is going to be vital to fighting omicron. and then importantly, also knowing that 30% of the population has not been vaccinated. they are clamping down on the unvaccinated, isa. they re not allowing them to go to public areas apart from essential businesses, and that s caused a lot of anger on the ground. if you see what denmark and norway are doing, where norway has said omicron is going to be the dominant variant by the end of this week. denmark now clamping down on public areas. no more than 50 people can meet at any one time. it s cold. it s christmas. you know, we know that new year s is going to be a very big issue in terms of community transmission. rome, for example, is another italian city that has canceled new year parties and events. so governments in europe, in various part
it a major miss match. as a result, the antibodies produced don t fight the disease so well. still experts say the vaccines will likely prevent severe illness. the food and drug administration will allow early pregnancies to be sent by mail. previously the agency required medication be picked up in person. the move comes as the u.s. supreme court considers a case that could reverse roe v. wade that could grant abortion rights in the united states. now, more than 2,000 new covid infections have been reported across the australian state of new south wales. that is another unfortunate daily record. surging case numbers are being driven by super spreader events at large venues like pubs as well as night clubs and the spread, of course, on the omicron variant doesn t help. according to the region s health minister, modelling shows infection numbers could go as
highly contagious variants, both delta and omicron infections are climbing fast just as the holidays are approaching. cnn s nick watt has the story for you. reporter: covid-19 cases and hospitalizations climbed around 40% this past month. deaths, says the cdc, forecast to rise in the month ahead. the delta variant still rampant. omicron on the rise. it s here now, and it s spreading, and it s going to increase. for unvaccinated, we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death if you re unvaccinated. for themselves, their families, and the hospitals they ll soon overwhelm. very soon, it s going to be the dominant variant. we ve seen that in south africa. we re seeing it in the uk. and i m absolutely certain that s what we re going to be seeing here relatively soon. reporter: for the vaccines, this variant is now the most complete escapee, say researchers in a new pre-print