The latest on the coronavirus pandemic and the Omicron variant

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that nearly 90 million cases of Covid-19 worldwide have been reported since the Omicron coronavirus variant was first identified 10 weeks ago, which is more than the total reported in all of 2020. 

Tedros conveyed concern over an emerging narrative in countries all over the world that preventing transmission of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 is no longer necessary given its easy transmissibility and low severity during a news briefing in Geneva Tuesday.

While a return to lockdown may not be necessary, Tedros urged nations to continue testing, surveillance and sequencing in addition to vaccinating their populations. 

WHO is currently tracking four sub-lineages of Omicron, including the BA.2 subvariant, which has become the most dominant strain in countries like Denmark and India. 

“As this virus evolves, some vaccines may need to evolve,” Tedros said, noting that WHO continues to work with scientists to guide the development of new vaccines that will be effective against a broad spectrum of variants. 

A sister virus to Omicron is rapidly replacing the original strain in many parts of the world, but early data suggest its impact is “unlikely to be substantial” according to World Health Organization experts who gave an update on the Omicron coronavirus variant in a technical briefing today.

Dr. Boris Pavlin, lead field epidemiologist on the WHO’s Covid-19 response team, said the BA.2 sublineage is overtaking the original Omicron strain, BA.1, “but does not show cause for alarm, as of now.”

Pavlin said BA.2 had already become the leading cause of Covid-19 infections in the Philippines, Qatar, India and Denmark and was poised to become dominant in several other countries soon.

He said that based on direct clinical comparisons in countries like Denmark, BA.2 infections did not seem to be any more severe than those caused by BA.1.

Though greater numbers of infections can translate into more hospitalizations simply because so many more people are getting sick, Pavlin said that in countries where BA.2 has become dominant, “we haven’t seen any higher bumps in hospitalization than expected.”

Hospitalizations and deaths are lagging indicators, however, and it may be too early in the lifecycle of BA.2 to observe these kinds of increases.

Data from the UK and Denmark show that vaccines are about as effective against BA.2 as they are against BA.1.  

Omicron is very effective at breaking through vaccine protection and causing illness, though boosters increase that protection substantially.  

Vaccine effectiveness against symptoms rises from about 13% to about 70% from two to three doses for BA.2 and the original Omicron strain.

Vaccination is more powerful for preventing severe outcomes like hospitalization and death, Pavlin noted.

Pavlin said that it continues to be important to prevent transmission of Covid-19 to stave off the emergence of more variants. 

“The next variant will be more transmissible than Omicron because it has to be to become the next variant,” he said, “It may or may not be more severe.” 

He said countries that are easing up on restrictions may need to be prepared to put them back into place should conditions deteriorate again with the virus.

“We can’t assume the worst is behind us,” he said.

The restaurant industry will likely never return to its pre-pandemic state, according to the National Restaurant Association.    

The trade group says 2022 will experience a “new normal,” as it struggles to rebound and competition for workers remains intense, according to National Restaurant Association’s 2022 State of the Restaurant Industry report released on Tuesday. 

Pent up demand from consumers will help in 2022 – and the group predicts sales will continue to rise. The National Restaurant Association forecasts $898 billion in sales in 2022, up from $864 billion in 2019. Yet just 1 in 4 restaurant operators believe their restaurant will be more profitable this year than last. 

Recruitment and retention is a top issue. Seven in 10 restaurant operators say they don’t have enough employees, and about 50% note it will be a top challenge this year.  

A full return to employment is not expected this year, and competition for employees will remain “intense.” The group estimates total industry employment will reach 14.9 million jobs. That’s up just 400,000 from 2021 as job openings high — and still 1 million fewer jobs than pre-pandemic. Just five states have the same amount of restaurant employees as they did pre-pandemic.   

Some restaurant operators are turning to technology to ease staffing shortages. Thirty-eight percent of adults say they would be ok with a robot delivering them their meal at a restaurant this year. Ghost kitchens, offsite delivery-only kitchens for restaurants, remain a small part of the landscape, but 50% of quick service operators expect to grow in 2022.  

Employment is just one issue facing restaurants. Ninety percent of restaurant operators say rising costs will likely continue through 2022, and 96% of operators do not believe supply chain issues will be fixed this year. 

Working from home changed the game for the industry. Fifty-four percent of work-from-home employees say they go out to dinner less than they did pre-pandemic, while 47% of work-from-home employees say the same thing about lunch, according to the report. 

Taiwan’s Olympic Committee will send their team to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Winter Olympics, it said in a statement Monday, reversing an earlier decision to miss both events. 

The committee stated that the delegation had originally planned not to attend, citing “epidemic prevention and transportation factors.”

However, the team said that it had received “several notices” from the International Olympic Committee “requiring all delegations in the Beijing 2022 Olympics to cooperate in sending personnel to the opening and closing ceremonies.”

Taiwan is expected to send four Winter Olympic athletes to compete in luge, skating and skiing events. They will be accompanied by an 11-person delegation made up of coaches, Olympic representatives, and other personnel.

Starting Tuesday, fully vaccinated travelers from any country around the world can apply for quarantine-free entry into Thailand through its “Test & Go” program, the Tourism Authority of Thailand announced on Monday.

Pre-approved passengers must present a negative Covid-19 test 72 hours before flying to Thailand and a proof of prepayment for two separate nights of accommodation at government-approved hotels on day 1 and day 5. On both days, they must stay within the room as they await the results of their mandatory RT-PCR tests.

The government expects around 200,000 monthly tourists to Thailand in February and March, Yuthasak Supaporn, the governor of TAT, told CNN on Tuesday, adding “most of expected visitors would be from Europe and America.” 

A previous quarantine-free program, which was suspended in late December due to rising Omicron cases in the country, was limited to 63 countries and territories. 

The Beijing Winter Olympics is being hosted inside a veritable fortress — known informally as the "bubble" — that takes weeks of careful planning to successfully penetrate.

Designed to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the bubble is the most ambitious quarantine attempted anywhere since the start of the pandemic.

The journey inside the bubble starts with a copy of the "Playbook," an 83-page rule book described by Olympic officials as a "way of life."

The guide instructs participants to upload their daily temperature readings into an app 14 days before the Games and to isolate during that time to avoid infection. As Omicron cases are surging in Tokyo, where I live, I didn't take any chances.

By the time I departed for Beijing, I was fully vaccinated, had tested negative for Covid twice, and had stocked my suitcase with face masks and snacks to eat if I failed a test and was forced to isolate alone for the entire Winter Games.

Maintaining social distance was easy on my almost empty ANA Airlines "special flight" from Tokyo, chartered to transport people to the Games.

When we landed, workers in hazmat suits were waiting on the runway to spray our luggage with disinfectant the moment it was unloaded from the plane.

After getting tested for Covid, I passed through immigration and customs.

The entire process was relatively smooth — if surreal — and requires massive organization and manpower.

The airport staff and volunteers are not allowed to go home at the end of their shifts to prevent potential spread of the virus into the city. That means they'll be away from their families during Lunar New Year, the most important holiday in China, which falls on Tuesday.

Then I got on a bus, along with about 10 other arrivals. The front of the coach was sealed off behind a transparent wall separating us from the driver. We also had our own dedicated lane, allowing the bus to overtake other vehicles stuck in Beijing's notoriously bad traffic.

I had officially entered what Olympic organizers are calling the "closed loop" — a system of multiple bubbles — including venues, conference centers, and hotels — connected by dedicated transport.

The loop stretches more than 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Beijing to Yanqing district, the site of the alpine skiing and sliding events, and more than 60 miles (97 kilometers) beyond that to Zhangjiakou, where Nordic skiing and other events will be held.

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Beijing has sealed off some neighborhood blocks in its northern district over Covid-19 concerns, the city’s officials confirmed in a briefing on Sunday.

Residents in three blocks of the Anzhenli neighborhood in Beijing’s Chaoyang district were sealed off on Saturday and prohibited from leaving the neighborhood. One of the buildings in the locality was then designated a Covid-19 high-risk area, the municipal government said. 

The Anzhenli neighborhood is just three kilometers from Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, which is the opening and closing ceremonies venue for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

A neighborhood or building is designated a Covid-19 high-risk area if more than two cases are detected in it within 14 days, according to Standards for Classifying Risk Areas for Covid-19 in Beijing.

As of Monday, there are four Covid-19 high-risk areas and six Covid-19 medium-risk areas in Beijing, according to the municipal government.

On Monday, Beijing reported two local Covid-19 cases, the Beijing Municipal Health Commission announced on Tuesday. 

This brings the total number of reported Covid-19 cases in Beijing since Jan. 15 — when the city detected its first Omicron infection — to 110, according to a CNN tally of figures from the National Health Commission.

The Beijing Olympics Committee has identified 24 new Covid-19 infections among Olympic athletes and personnel as of Monday, it confirmed in a statement Tuesday. 

Of the 24 cases, 18 were found among new airport arrivals, while the remaining six involved people already living inside Beijing’s “closed loop” system, which separates Olympic staff, stakeholders and athletes from the public. 

Sixteen of the positive cases involved athletes or team officials, five of whom were already living inside the “closed loop” system. 

Since the official “closed-loop” system began on Jan. 23, 200 Olympics-related personnel and stakeholders have tested positive, 67 of those cases have involved athletes or team officials.

According to the committee, 466,852 Covid tests have now been administered inside the “closed loop” system since Jan. 23.

Team USA's Elana Meyers Taylor, a three-time Olympic medalist and two-time world champion in women’s bobsled, announced in a social media post she has tested positive for Covid-19.

In an Instagram post, she said she is in isolation and asymptomatic.

CNN's Jill Martin contributed to this post

Pfizer is expected to seek authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration as soon as today for its Covid-19 vaccine for children age 6 months up to 5 years, a person familiar with the plan says. 

The company will ask the agency to grant emergency use authorization for a two-dose regimen of its product while continuing to test three doses in this younger age group, the person said. 

Pfizer was encouraged to seek authorization for the two doses by federal regulators, who hope it can be granted by late February. Waiting on data for three doses could extend the wait until March. 

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is already authorized for use in people as young as 5, and if authorized, this shot would be the first Covid-19 vaccine available for the youngest children. 

The timeline development was first reported by the Washington Post.

In December, Pfizer extended its vaccine in trial in younger children after two child-sized doses of the vaccine did not produce the expected immunity in the 2- to 5-year-olds, although it did so for the babies up to age 2. The company said it would "amend" the trial to add a third 3-microgram dose at least two months after the second.

A Pfizer spokesperson told CNN on Monday the company has not yet submitted a request to the FDA and said the company is “continuing to collect and analyze data from both two and three doses in our younger age cohort.” The US Food and Drug Administration has not responded to CNN’s request for comment.

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Pfizer could submit for EUA for two-dose Covid-19 vaccine for children younger than 5 as soon as today