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At least one person has died in the United Kingdom after contracting the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday, warning that the variant now accounted for 40% of infections in the British capital. Since the first Omicron cases were detected on Nov. 27 in the United Kingdom, Johnson has imposed tougher restrictions and on Sunday he urged people to get booster shots to prevent the health service from being overwhelmed. (McKay and Faulconbridge, 12/13)

U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said there’s no certainty the government will be able to keep schools in England open, as the government battles to contain the spread of the omicron Covid-19 variant. “When it comes to our fight against the pandemic there are no guarantees,” Javid told LBC radio on Monday, as he detailed plans to offer all adults in England a booster vaccination by the end of December. “We are once again in a race between the vaccine and the virus.” (Donaldson, 12/13)

Poor mental health was the leading cause of British workers taking off work for illness in 2021, costing employers an estimated 43 billion pounds ($56.9 billion). That’s according to data from GoodShape, which manages workplace absences for companies and has a database of 750,000 employee records. GoodShape estimated that the cost of sick leave to employers rose by 31% from before the pandemic, not accounting for the cost of hiring and training replacement staff. Mental ill health accounted for 19% of all lost working time in the U.K. up to Nov. 28, slightly more than confirmed cases of Covid-19. That was the case across every industry except transport and logistics, consumer and retail, and workplace services. (Burden, 12/13)

U.S. travel warnings are hitting longtime American tourist hot spots where it hurts, with some who depend on the dollar describing their situation as desperate. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week advised Americans to avoid traveling to France, Portugal and several other European destinations, as well as to Jordan and Tanzania, citing concern over high rates of Covid-19. These destinations now join more than 70 other countries on the “Level 4: Very High” list, which also includes Germany, the United Kingdom and Denmark. (Elbaum and Ing, 12/9)

When the highly infectious Delta variant hit China in the summer, some public health experts were hopeful that the country could soon receive an immunity boost from BioNTech's highly effective mRNA Covid-19 vaccine. In July, the shot was reported to have passed an expert review by Chinese regulators and was in the administration review stage, according to Fosun Pharma, the Chinese partner of BioNTech licensed to produce and distribute the vaccine in the Greater China region. Fosun was even planning to start domestic trial production by the end of August. However, five months later there is still no word from Chinese officials on when -- or whether -- the vaccine will ever be approved, even as the newly emerged Omicron variant poses a fresh challenge to China's zero-Covid strategy -- and its less effective domestic vaccines. (Gan and George, 12/13)