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Coronavirus Pandemic; Christmas in Bethlehem. Aired 12-12:15a ET
Aired December 25, 2021 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.
Many are scrambling to find new travel plans this Christmas, as more and more flights are cancelled. Thousands of flights across Christmas Eve and Christmas Day have been called off around the world, mostly because so many airline workers are calling out sick.
The variant is quickly becoming dominant in Europe, leading to the return of many restrictions. The Netherlands is under a strict lockdown and masks are required outdoors in Spain, Italy and Greece.
Infections have been hitting records all week, with Italy, France and the U.K. all reporting new daily highs on Friday. It was the third day in a row cases in the U.K. climbed to new heights. Salma Abdelaziz has more.
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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the U.K. heads into Christmas Day, yet another day of record-breaking COVID cases. On Friday, the U.K. recorded more than 120,000 new positive COVID cases, the highest number seen since the start of the pandemic.
The surge, of course, largely driven by the Omicron variant and that's why the queen's Christmas message will be so poignant this year. It's going to be the first message she delivers without her husband for the first time during the holidays.
And it comes after the queen had to cancel her own Christmas plans. She generally travels to the Sandringham estate in Norfolk but this year the Christmas message will be delivered from Windsor Castle.
Prime minister Boris Johnson urged everyone to be cautious on Christmas Day and to go out and get vaccinated, get their third shot. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: The time for buying presents is running out. There is still a wonderful thing you can give, your family and the whole country and that is to get that jab, whether it's your first or your second or your booster, so that next year's festivities are even better than this year's.
And in the meantime, I thank you and I wish you all a very merry Christmas.
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ABDELAZIZ: Now new data from the government shows just the extent of the crisis. One in 20 people in London had COVID-19 in the week ending December 19th, according to the Office of National Statistics. And the skyrocketing case count has health officials worried, of course, that these many positive cases could turn into hospitalizations.
But multiple studies now adding to a growing body of evidence that Omicron is less severe, particularly when it's compared to Delta. Several studies with varying factors; however, that risk of hospitalization appears to be 40 percent to 70 percent less if you're double vaccinated with the Omicron variant than it was under the Delta variant.
Health officials hoping, hoping that that could reduce hospitalizations in the coming days. But of course, the fear is the sheer case count, forcing many people just to cancel their Christmas plans this year -- Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.
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BRUNHUBER: There are new weapons in the COVID fight after the FDA approved two new antivirus pills to help battle infections before they get severe but new guidelines suggest the unvaccinated should be the first in line to receive the pill rather than those who receive the full complement of vaccinations. I asked Dr. Jonathan Reiner about the reasons behind this decision.
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DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: There is a visceral way to think about who to prioritize for antivirals and then there is a moral way. I understand the frustration of people who have gotten their shots and who have socially distanced and worn masks and played by the rules.
And they feel like the folks who haven't done any that should be in the back of line. But the truth is that the people who will be most vulnerable to dying from Omicron infection are the unvaccinated and the immunocompromised. And in both calculations, the immunocompromised are in the first tier of people to receive this.
But the question is what to do about the unvaccinated. And they need to go first because they are much more likely to die. It's very unlikely for an otherwise well vaccinated and hopefully boosted individual to die from Omicron infection but not so unlikely for unvaccinated.
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BRUNHUBER: The White House is lifting travel restrictions placed on eight African countries last month following the emergence of the Omicron variant. A senior administration official said the Centers for Disease Control recommended the move because health experts have a better understanding of the variant.
And vaccines are effective against severe disease, especially when boosted. Foreign nationals will still need to be fully vaccinated and have a negative COVID test within one day of departure to the U.S. The ban will lift on December 31st, just after midnight.
The White House says it's revoking Ethiopia's membership from a lucrative trade deal with the U.S. over human rights violations. It comes after a CNN investigation found the government had been using the country's commercial airlines to shuttle weapons to and from neighboring Eritrea.
It's a key beneficiary of the trade deal, which gives some African nations duty-free access to the U.S. market. Ethiopian Airlines says it strongly refutes the findings. The termination will take effect January 1st.
Beijing is pushing back on Japan's decision not to send the government delegation to the Winter Games, saying it contradicts the Olympic spirit of unity and that they should keep sports and politics separate.
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ZHAO LIJIAN, SPOKESPERSON, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY (through translator): We hope and urge the Japanese side to implement China and Japan's commitments to support each other's Olympic Games and not to politicize sports.
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BRUNHUBER: Japan said they made their decision made out of respect for human rights but stopped short of calling it a diplomatic boycott. The decision comes after the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia have announced diplomatic boycotts. The Winter Games are now just over 40 days away.
All right, let's take a look at other stories happening around the world. At least 38 people are dead after a fire tore through a passenger ferry in southern Bangladesh. Fire officials say the blaze started Friday morning before sweeping through the rest of the ship.
Officials believe the death toll could go higher because some passengers are still missing and more than 50 others hospitalized. Investigators are still looking into what started the fire. Two cities in Saudi Arabia were hit by projectiles fired by the Houthi
rebels from Yemen Friday, according to state media, quoting the Saudi- led coalition fighting in Yemen. The report says two people were killed.
A day earlier the coalition said the airstrikes hit a military base in Yemen's capital. The base say the bombs struck a prison and hospital. The rebels have launched dozens of drones and missiles over the years, but few have caused casualties or damage.
Russia is demanding an apology from Ukraine after a Molotov cocktail was thrown in its consulate in western Ukraine. Russian state media say its foreign ministry considers it terrorist act and demands that urgent measures be taken to strengthen security.
Ukrainian officials referred to it as hooliganism and say there were no injuries, and no damage was done to the diplomatic mission.
The world's most advanced telescope is slated to launch shortly from the European Space Agency port in French Guiana. It will take one month to reach its orbit around the sun, some 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth.
The James Webb telescope will be able to observe the atmosphere of planets outsider our solar system as never before, potentially finding ones which might sustain life.
And Christmas in Bethlehem is a subdued affair again this holiday. COVID has kept most tourists away for a second straight year. CNN's Andrew Carey explains what that means for one Palestinian woman, whose livelihood has always depended on crowds of Christmas visitors.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).
ANDREW CAREY, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Maha Saca has been stitching since she was a little girl, traditional Palestinian patterns on pillowcases, on tablecloths and the richly embroidered long dress (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I like this one, too.
CAREY (voice-over): This a bridal fob (ph) from Bethlehem, different panels expressing the wish for children and the hope for a long life.
MAHA SACA, PALESTINIAN HERITAGE CENTER: This is our identity. Every village and town in Palestine, they have a special dress where the woman, she will tell a story and what surrounded her, my design on her dress. That is why every dress is completely different.
CAREY (voice-over): Craft and skills of a bygone time. And for Palestinians, with the region's troubled history, garments that can express an idea of resistance and the preservation of memory.
SACA: You can see that this is for Bethlehem area. This is for my grandmother. The most important here is the blooms of the tree. The (INAUDIBLE) groves here.
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CAREY (voice-over): They also provide a livelihood for the 20 women who produce them and the other works on sale here. The pandemic has had a crushing impact.
SACA: In these two years, we have no tourists, no work. Also, every shop in Bethlehem, there is no work, the hotels, the restaurants.
CAREY (voice-over): Palestinian officials put the cost of COVID to the tourism sector at $1.5 billion. Bethlehem's nativity scene and tree are up. But Christmas this year needs a fix.
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CAREY (voice-over): Even so, for Maha Saca, December did bring a gift when UNESCO added Palestinian embroidery to its cultural heritage list, giving a little reason for hope and the optimism of the season.
SACA: Bethlehem is the capital of Christmas, the capital of Christianity. And always we have the hope, we will not lose the hope at all (INAUDIBLE) that and I hope to have the peace that equals these pleasures (ph) (INAUDIBLE) for Bethlehem and for all the world.
CAREY (voice-over): Andrew Carey, CNN, Bethlehem.
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BRUNHUBER: Pope Frances celebrated Christmas Eve mass at the Vatican on Friday. COVID-19 restrictions only allowed about 2,000 inside the basilica. The pope focused his message on the needs of the world's poor, drawing a parallel with the helplessness of the infant Jesus.
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POPE FRANCIS, PONTIFF, ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH (through translator): Brothers and sisters standing before the crib, we contemplate what is central beyond all the lights and decorations. Infinite love has a minuscule heart that beats softly. The eternal word is an infant, a speechless child.
The bread of life needs to be nourished. The creator of the world has no home. Today, all is turned upside down. God comes into the world in littleness.
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BRUNHUBER: Santa Claus is doing his part to spread the Christmas spirit. His sleigh is packed and right now he's delivering gifts to children around the world. And you can track his every move. NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense command, has activated its Santa tracking system.
You can follow Santa's journey on its website or call the command center. The Santa tracker started by accident in 1955, when a newspaper misprinted a phone number in an ad for kids to contact Santa and the call went to a defense base.
Forget the sleigh. In Thailand, Santa rides an elephant. Check out these Santas here. They're giving school children gifts of face masks, hand sanitizer and balloons. Organizers hope to encourage students to return to the classrooms after months of remote learning.
Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber and have a Merry Christmas.
