Lockdowns, protests and Omicron – what happened around the world with COVID-19 in 2022?
Next year could see the end of COVID-19 as an emergency worldwide, but global healthcare systems are still at risk of being overwhelmed, the World Health Organisation has told Sky News.
From lockdown protests in China, to the long-awaited reopening of Japan, to President Joe Biden declaring the pandemic over in the US, coronavirus remained in the headlines worldwide in 2022.
Now as we close out the third year of the pandemic, and look towards the fourth, Sky News looks at how different regions have dealt with everything from vaccines to disinformation – and what to expect in 2023.
One of the biggest storylines this year was the growth of the Omicron strain, which has come to dominate the global COVID-19 caseload.
“We reached a peak of more than 23 million cases reported in a week,” the WHO’s Dr Maria Van Kerkhove told Sky News.
“We had to re-draw our scale. On the one hand while we saw that huge increase in transmission, on average Omicron was not as severe as Delta but still in some countries caused more deaths because of just the sheer number of cases.”
Omicron may have become the dominant variant, Dr Van Kerkhove says, but it is still evolving and changing, with around 500 sub-lineages in circulation.
She added: “And this is why surveillance needs to continue.
“We need to track the known variants. We need to be able to detect new ones.”
Deserted streets in China were a common sight as the country pursued aggressive lockdown policies
But despite the changes with Omicron, the original vaccines are continuing to hold up against severe disease, Dr Van Kerkhove says.
There is more to do in terms of vaccine coverage worldwide however, she added.
While more than 13 billion doses of vaccines have been administered globally, the WHO target of 70% of populations in each country has not been reached.
This is one of the areas where inequalities in access can be seen.
Worldwide some 79% of people aged 60 or over have received their primary vaccine, but that number is only 60% in Africa.
“We’re not reaching those targets. And we have to in every single country, but predominantly in lower income countries, we’re missing those individuals.”
A mental health worker with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) attends to a patient in Caracas, Venezuela
Dr Van Kerkhove urged those who have yet to get the vaccine to do so, saying that it is not too late.
“And what we see right now is the people that are requiring hospitalisation, the people who are dying, are the people who have either not received any vaccine at all or they haven’t received the full number of doses that they need.”
Looking back at 2022, she says the year was marked by countries adjusting their strategies as they opened up and sought to live with COVID-19.
Some countries in the Asia and Pacific regions, for instance, had been much more closed off during the pandemic as they sought to seal themselves off while rolling out vaccination programmes.
Thailand, which is highly dependent on tourism, was one of the first Asian countries to open up, while Japan and Hong Kong were some of the last.
There remains a prevalence of mask wearing in those regions, which has been largely abandoned in other parts of the world.
People hold white sheets of paper in protest over COVID-19 restrictions in Beijing, China
Protests in China over the country’s strict lockdowns have spread into some of the most significant unrest the regime has seen since Tiananmen Square.
But after most zero-COVID restrictions were suddenly reversed in the wake of the protests, the virus swept through the country largely unchecked.
The new wave led some leading scientists in recent weeks to warn it could be too soon to declare the end of the pandemic.
“It’s clear that we are in a very different phase [of the pandemic], but in my mind, that pending wave in China is a wild card,” Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans, who sits on a WHO committee tasked with advising on the status of the COVID emergency, said this December.
Canada saw its own protests earlier in the year, as trucks rolled into the nation’s capital in a demonstration against mandatory vaccines that turned into a larger protest against government overreach.
This inspired others across the Atlantic in France and Belgium, with a “freedom convoy” demanding an end to COVID-19 restrictions.
A great unknown in Asia is what is happening in the secretive North Korea, which was reluctant to report having any cases at all.
President Joe Biden receives an updated vaccine
India, however, has seen very little impact from coronavirus this year compared to the devastation it caused in 2021.
Markets, schools, colleges, factories, manufacturing units, government and private offices are all open, while work from home has been largely withdrawn after becoming the norm.
This has been helped by the country’s large-scale vaccination programme that has seen 2.2 billion vaccines administered, covering almost 70% of the population with two jabs.
In the US, President Joe Biden declared that the “pandemic is over” in September.
This was despite hundreds of Americans dying with the virus every day at the time – down from more than 3,000 deaths a day earlier in his presidential term.
A man is escorted by police amid protests over vaccine mandates in Ottawa, Canada
However despite more countries opening up in 2022, Dr Van Kerkhove said there remains a risk that healthcare systems could be overwhelmed.
“In countries around the world the virus is spreading unchecked and healthcare systems right now are extremely fragile everywhere.
“Health workers are absolutely exhausted. Many have retired. Many have left. And we don’t see that strength in the system that we need to see.”
But she added that despite COVID-19 being here to stay, next year could see an important change in the way the virus is viewed.
A visitor walks past an illuminated COVID-19 model in Paris, France
“We’re hopeful next year we can end this as an emergency everywhere because countries are better at dealing with it.
“The big wildcard is the virus. The wildcard is the mutations and the evolution of this virus.”
Long COVID is a “significant concern” and will be a big emphasis going forward as more research is done into what it is and how to treat it, she said.
Another huge issue that remains is around disinformation and partisan politics about the virus.
“So trust is really at an all time low because of what everyone has gone through with the politicisation, attacks on science, misinformation.
“And we have to work really hard to build that. It’s so hard won, but easily lost.”
Nine of a doctor’s 10 children have been killed in an Israeli missile strike on their home in Gaza, which also left her surviving son badly injured and her husband in a critical condition.
Warning: This article contains details of child deaths
Alaa Al Najjar, a paediatrician at Al Tahrir Clinic in the Nasser Medical Complex, was at work during the attack on her home, south of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on Friday.
Graphic footage shared by the Hamas-run Palestinian Civil Defence shows the bodies of at least seven small children being pulled from the rubble.
Rescuers can be seen battling fires and searching through a collapsed building, shouting out when they locate a body, before bringing the children out one by one and wrapping their remains in body bags.
In the footage, Dr Al Najjar’s husband, Hamdi Al Najjar, who is also a doctor, is put on to a stretcher and then carried to an ambulance.
The oldest of their children was only 12 years old, according to Dr Muneer Alboursh, the director general of Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas.
Nine children were killed in the strike. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” he wrote in a social media post.
“In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted – Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”
Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
British doctors describe ‘horrific’ and ‘unimaginable’ attack
Two British doctors working at Nasser Hospital described the attack as “horrific” and “unimaginable” for Dr Al Najjar.
Speaking in a video diary on Friday night, Dr Graeme Groom said his last patient of the day was Dr Al Najjar’s 11-year-old son, who was badly injured and “seemed much younger as we lifted him on to the operating table”.
Hamdi Al Najjar, Dr Al Najjar’s husband who is also a doctor, was taken to hospital. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
The strike “may or may not have been aimed at his father”, Dr Groom said, adding that the man had been left “very badly injured”.
Dr Victoria Rose said the family “lived opposite a petrol station, so I don’t know whether the bomb set off some massive fire”.
Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
‘No political or military connections’
Dr Groom added: “It is unimaginable for that poor woman, both of them are doctors here.
“The father was a physician at Nasser Hospital. He had no political and no military connections. He doesn’t seem to be prominent on social media, and yet his poor wife is the only uninjured one, who has the prospect of losing her husband.”
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Nineteen of Gaza’s hospitals remain operational, all of them are overwhelmed with the number of patients and a lack of supplies
He said it was “a particularly sad day”, while Dr Rose added: “That is life in Gaza. That is the way it goes in Gaza.”
Sky News has approached the Israeli Defence Forces for comment.
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Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began when the militant group stormed across the border into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251 others.
Israel’s military response has flattened large areas of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
World
UN’s Antonio Guterres condemns ‘teaspoon’ of aid allowed into Gaza after dozens die in airstrikes
The head of the UN has said Israel has only authorised for Gaza what amounts to a “teaspoon” of aid after at least 60 people died in overnight airstrikes.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Friday the supplies approved so far “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,” adding “the needs are massive and the obstacles are staggering”.
He warned that more people will die unless there is “rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access”.
A woman at the site of an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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Gaza: ‘Loads of children with huge burns’
Israel says around 300 aid trucks have been allowed through since it lifted an 11-week blockade on Monday, but according to Mr Guterres, only about a third have been transported to warehouses within Gaza due to insecurity.
The IDF said 107 vehicles carrying flour, food, medical equipment and drugs were allowed through on Thursday.
Many of Gaza’s two million residents are at high risk of famine, experts have warned.
Meanwhile, at least 60 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight.
Ten people died in the southern city of Khan Younis, and deaths were also reported in the central town of Deir al-Balah and the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought.
A body is carried out of rubble after an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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‘Almost everyone depends on aid’ in Gaza
The latest strikes came a day after two Israeli embassy workers were killed in Washington.
The suspect, named as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, Illinois, told police he “did it for Gaza”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of fuelling antisemitism following the shootings.
The leaders of the UK, France and Canada are “on the wrong side of humanity and (…) history”, he said, after they threatened “concrete action” against Israel this week if it continues its “egregious” military operations in Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu also accused Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.
Palestinians search for casualties in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
But UK government minister Luke Pollard told Sky News on Friday morning he “doesn’t recognise” Mr Netanyahu’s accusation.
Earlier this week, Mr Netanyahu said he was recalling negotiators from the Qatari capital, Doha, after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251 others.
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The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
A woman has been arrested after 12 people were reportedly injured in a stabbing at Hamburg’s central train station in Germany.
An attacker armed with a knife targeted people on the platform between tracks 13 and 14, according to police.
They added that the suspect was a 39-year-old woman.
Police at the scene. Pic: AP
Officers said they “believe she acted alone” and investigations into the stabbing are continuing.
There was no immediate information on a possible motive.
The fire service said six of the injured were in a life-threatening condition, three others were seriously hurt, and another three sustained minor injuries, news agency dpa reported.
The attack happened shortly after 6pm local time (5pm UK time) on Friday in front of a waiting train, regional public broadcaster NDR reported.
A high-speed ICE train with its doors open could be seen at the platform after the incident.
Railway operator Deutsche Bahn said it was “deeply shocked” by what had happened.
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Four tracks at the station were closed in the evening, and some long-distance trains were delayed or diverted.
Hamburg is Germany‘s second biggest city, with the train station being a hub for local, regional and long-distance trains.
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