Covid news - live: New ‘highly infectious’ XBB.1.5 subvariant ‘a wake-up’ call for UK

China has defended its Covid policy following criticism from Joe Biden, the US president.

China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular press briefing in Beijing that China had transparently and quickly shared Covid data with the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Mr Biden and other countries - as well as the WHO - have disputed this.

Mao said that China’s "epidemic situation is controllable" and that it hoped the WHO would "uphold a scientific, objective, and impartial position".

"Facts have proved that China has always, in accordance with the principles of legality, timeliness, openness and transparency, maintained close communication and shared relevant information and data with the WHO in a timely manner," Mao said.

Hong Kong’s government will lift a ban on the import of hamsters in mid-January, almost a year after more than 2,000 of the rodents were culled due to a cluster of Covid cases traced to a pet shop in the financial hub at the start of 2022.

Based on its latest risk assessment, the city’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said on Thursday the restrictions on the commercial importation of hamsters could be lifted.

The government aims to "resume commercial imports of hamsters around mid-January," it said in a statement.

The Omicron subvariant, XBB.1.5, is causing concern among scientists after its rapid spread in the United States in December.

My colleague Emily Atkinson takes a closer look at everything we know so far about the new variant:

Germany is changing its entry rules for travellers from China and will in future require at least a rapid coronavirus test to enter the country, health minister Karl Lauterbach said on Thursday.

There will also be random checks upon entry for any coronavirus variants as well as expanded monitoring of wastewater, he said in a statement.

The steps are in line with recommendations by European Union government officials released on Wednesday evening.

“Europe has found a joint response to the pandemic situation in China. This is precisely what we as the federal government have been working towards,” said Mr Lauterbach.

Travellers arriving in England from China will need to produce a negative Covid test from today.

The move was announced last month but kicks in on Thursday amid rising Covid cases in China.

“Tests must have been taken no more than two days before travel,” the Department of Health and Social Care said in a tweet.

The “highly infectious” XBB.1.5 Covid subvariant will drive the next wave of the virus in the UK and its rapid spread in other countries should be a “wake-up call”, experts have warned.

The strain has caused a surge of cases in the US, with some experts concerned that its mutations could see it trigger a similar spike in the UK by dodging the wall of immunity built up from previous waves and vaccine rollouts.

My colleague Thomas Kingsley reports:

There were 429 deaths involving Covid in the third week (51) of December, official figures show.

In its latest update on Thursday, the Office for National Statistics said 308 of those deaths had this recorded as the “underlying cause of death”.

This was a “greater proportion” when compared with the previous week (50).

China will reopen the border with its special administrative region of Hong Kong on Sunday for the first time in three years, as it accelerates the unwinding of stringent Covid rules that have battered its economic growth.

The opening will bring the resumption of quarantine-free travel between the financial hub and the mainland, although it would be done in a "gradual and orderly" way, China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office said in a notice on Thursday.

China is set to reopen to the world on Sunday, welcoming international travellers and returning residents without the need to quarantine for the first time since 2020, even as infections surge after it scrapped its COVID curbs.

Short of imposing a city-wide lockdown, Hong Kong closely followed China’s tough zero-COVID policy until the middle of 2022 when it began to ease some of restrictions.

China’s Covid-19 outbreak is “worrying”, said French health minister Francois Braun, adding that the pressure on France’s hospitals regarding the virus was easing.

“We’re declining considerably, including with regard to people in hospital, but what’s going on in China is worrying”, Mr Braun told France 2 television.

People entering Sweden from China must provide a negative Covid test, it has been announced.

Sweden’s health minister made the announcement on Thursday morning amid a rise in cases in China.

More details to follow shortly.