Covid news: Boris Johnson reported to police over No 10 parties, South Korea cases and deaths at new high

Normally, planes are in constant motion, pinballing between continents. But in March 2020 all that came to a halt. What did it mean for our jobs, our horizons – and the planet?

In England, unvaccinated women who suffered with Covid-19 during their pregnancies have told “terrifying” stories of having the virus, from being rushed to hospital to having emergency C-sections.

The women appear in a video sharing their experiences of severe Covid-19 during pregnancy as part of a new campaign encouraging expectant mothers to get the vaccine.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said 98% of pregnant women in hospital with symptomatic Covid-19 are unvaccinated.

The video features three women who experienced serious complications after contracting Covid-19 before they had been vaccinated, as well as the doctors and frontline staff who treated them, to warn of the dangers of the virus for pregnant women and their babies.

Christina, a mental health therapist from Guildford who was admitted to hospital with Covid-19 in her third trimester, said: “I had to give birth via emergency C-section because there was concern that I could have a stillbirth. It was terrifying.

“I don’t know what the future holds for me and my baby; I’m still suffering with symptoms now along with the anxiety of not knowing how or when I’ll recover.

“I would urge pregnant women to get vaccinated because I don’t want anyone to experience what I went through.”

Tanviha, who works in anaesthesiology and research in Manchester, spent two months in hospital with Covid-19 following an emergency C-section, said she caught Covid-19 during her second pregnancy in February.

An Italian man who wanted a coronavirus vaccine certificate without actually having the jab tried to play the system by presenting health workers with a fake arm.

Despite the realistic skin colour, nobody was fooled by the silicone limb, and the man – in his 50s – was reported to local police following the incident on Thursday night in Biella, northwest Italy.

“The case borders on the ridiculous, if it were not for the fact we are talking about a gesture of enormous gravity,” the head of the Piedmont regional government, Albert Cirio, said in a statement on Facebook.

He said such an act was “unacceptable faced with the sacrifice that our entire community has paid during the pandemic, in terms of human lives, the social and economic cost.”

The Cook Islands on Saturday recorded its first case of Covid-19 since the pandemic began, as the South Pacific country edges toward reopening its borders to tourists.

The nation of around 17,000 people has one of the highest vaccination rates globally, with 96% of the eligible population double-dosed.

The virus was detected in a 10-year-old boy quarantining after arriving on a repatriation flight with his family on Thursday, the prime minister, Mark Brown, said in a statement. The boy was believed to have flown in from New Zealand.

South Korea again broke its daily records for coronavirus infections and deaths and confirmed three more cases of the new Omicron variant as officials scramble to tighten social distancing and border controls.

The 5,352 new cases reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Saturday marked the third time this week the daily tally exceeded 5,000. The country’s death toll was at 3,809 after a record 70 virus patients died in the past 24 hours, while the 752 patients in serious or critical conditions were also an all-time high.

As the delta-driven surge threatens to overwhelm hospital systems, there is also concern about the local spread of the Omicron variant, which is seen as potentially more infectious than previous strains of the virus.

The country’s omicron caseload is now at nine after KDCA confirmed three more cases. The new cases include the wife, mother-in-law and a friend of a man who caught Omicron from a couple he drove home from the airport after they arrived from Nigeria on 24 November. The couple’s teenage child and two other women who also travelled to Nigeria have also been infected with Omicron.

Officials say the number of Omicron cases could rise as some of the patients had attended a church gathering involving hundreds of people on 28 November.

While the emergence of Omicron has triggered global alarm and pushed governments around the world to tighten their borders, scientists say it remains unclear whether the new variant is more contagious, more likely to evade the protection provided by vaccines or more likely to cause serious illnesses than previous versions of the virus.