TOP HEADLINES 

· An accusation by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's former senior adviser that he lied to parliament about a lockdown party at his official residence is "nonsense," his deputy said on Tuesday.

Johnson faces the gravest crisis of his tenure after revelations about gatherings during COVID-19 lockdowns, some when British people could not even bid farewell in person to dying relatives, and Queen Elizabeth II was mourning her husband.

Asked if the prime minister was doomed if it could be proved he lied about one of the Downing Street parties, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said: "Look, the suggestion that he's lied is nonsense." But Raab added that any deliberate falsehood in the House of Commons would leave Johnson's position in jeopardy.

· Poland is experiencing a fifth wave of infections, the country's health minister said, warning the spread of the Omicron variant could send daily case numbers soaring to levels not yet seen in the country.

While daily case numbers have fallen since early December, the European Union's largest eastern member has had little respite since the fourth wave, regularly reporting more than 10,000 new infections per day amid low vaccine take-up and limited restrictions on public life.

"We predict that the peak of infections will be in mid-February, and that peak is about 60,000 cases a day," Adam Niedzielski told a news conference.

· The number of people with COVID-19 in French hospitals rose by 888 to 25,775, the health ministry said on Monday, the biggest one-day increase since early November 2020 (before the country's vaccination campaign began).

· The English Premier League reported 33 new infections in the previous week, continuing falling positive cases for the third week running.

The country's top soccer league recorded 72 and 94 cases in the last two reports, while there were 103 positive results – a weekly record – between December 20-26.

A total of 21 fixtures have been postponed since last month due to COVID-19 outbreaks at various clubs.

· The fourth shot of the vaccine boosts antibodies to even higher levels than the third jab, but it is not enough to prevent Omicron infections, according to a preliminary study in Israel.

Israel's Sheba Medical Center has given second booster shots in a trial among its staff and is studying the effect of the Pfizer booster in 154 people after two weeks and the Moderna booster in 120 people after one week, said Gili Regev-Yochay, director of the Infectious Diseases Unit.

These were compared with a control group that did not receive the fourth shot. The hospital said those in the Moderna group had previously received three shots of Pfizer's vaccine.

· Britain's government has won its bid to overturn a ruling that it acted unlawfully when it gave a contract to a public relations firm run by associates of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings.

A Court of Appeal ruling published on Tuesday overturned a decision made in June, which said the government had shown "apparent bias" in awarding more than 560,000 pounds ($794,000) to Public First to test public opinion on the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The appeal court ruling set out that a fair-minded and reasonably informed observer would not have concluded that failing to carry out comparative procurement exercises created a possibility that the decision-maker was biased.

· Lions and pumas at a zoo in Pretoria, South Africa, got severe COVID-19 from asymptomatic zoo handlers. The discovery has raised concerns that new variants could emerge from animal reservoirs of the disease, studies at a local university showed.

A study conducted in 2020 of feces from two pumas that had had diarrhea, nasal discharge and anorexia showed the animals had the virus, making a full recovery after 23 days, the University of Pretoria said in a statement.

FROM OUR GLOBAL COLLEAGUES

CGTN Europe: Tennis star Djokovic lands in Serbia after Australia deportation, now doubts over French Open

CGTN China: Cathay Pacific faces action from Hong Kong inquiry into lockdown breach

CGTN America: U.S. COVID-19 cases surpass 60 million: Johns Hopkins University

CGTN Africa: Benin receives second batch of COVID-19 vaccines donated by China

CGTN Europe has been providing in-depth coverage of the novel coronavirus story as it has unfolded.