British medics warned Friday that hospitals around the country face a perilous few weeks amid surging new coronavirus infections that have been blamed on a new variant of the virus.

A day after the UK posted a record 55,892 new infections and another 964 coronavirus-related deaths, concerns are mounting about the impact on the overstretched National Health Service. Field hospitals that were constructed in the early days of the pandemic but that were subsequently mothballed are being reactivated.

The Royal College of Nursing's England director, Mike Adams, told Sky News that the UK was in the "eye of the storm" and that it was "infuriating" to see people not following the social distancing guidance or wearing masks.

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A leading physician also warned of burnout among health workers on the front line of the outbreak in hospitals, while also urging people to follow the rules.

"I am worried," Adrian Boyle, vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, told the BBC. "We are very much at battle stations."

New infections have more than doubled in recent weeks after a new variant that is said to be around 70 per cent more contagious was found to be behind a big spike in cases around London and the southeast of England.

Given the lags between new cases and hospitalisations and subsequently deaths, there are huge concerns about the path of the pandemic over the coming month or two in a country that has Europe's second-highest virus-related death toll at nearly 74,000.

As a result of the spike, which has spread around the country and seen lockdown restrictions tightened, the strategy around the rollout of vaccines has been changed to get more people an initial jab as soon as possible, with a scheduled second one delayed.

READ MORE: UK approves COVID-19 'vaccine for the world'

In a joint statement Thursday, the chief medical officers for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, said the first vaccine dose offers "substantial" protection.

Currently, two vaccines have been approved for use in the UK.

Just under 1 million people have received the first dose of the vaccine developed by American pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and German biotechnology company BioNTech, with a small minority also getting the second dose as planned after 21 days.

Alongside the approval earlier this week of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca, a new dosing regimen was outlined, aimed at providing a speedier rollout. This means the second dose of both vaccines will be within 12 weeks of the first.

The four medical officers said they were "confident" the first dose of both vaccines would provide "substantial" protection.

"In the short term, the additional increase of vaccine efficacy from the second dose is likely to be modest; the great majority of the initial protection from clinical disease is after the first dose of vaccine," they said.

The new plan has faced widespread criticism, with the UK's main union for doctors warning that delaying the second dose causes huge problems for thousands of partially vaccinated elderly and vulnerable people.

"It is grossly and patently unfair to tens of thousands of our most at-risk patients to now try to reschedule their appointments," said Richard Vautrey from the British Medical Association.

On a scrap of land surrounded by flooding in South Sudan, families drink and bathe from the waters that swept away latrines and continue to rise.

Some 1 million people in the country have been displaced or isolated for months by the worst flooding in memory, with the intense rainy season a sign of climate change. The waters began rising in June, washing away crops, swamping roads and worsening hunger and disease in the young nation struggling to recover from civil war. Now famine is a threat.

On a recent visit by The Associated Press to the Old Fangak area in hard-hit Jonglei state, parents spoke of walking for hours in chest-deep water to find food and health care as malaria and diarrheal diseases spread.

READ MORE: Alcohol sales banned as South Africa battles coronavirus surge

Regina Nyakol Piny, a mother of nine, now lives in a primary school in the village of Wangchot after their home was swamped.

"We don't have food here, we rely only on U.N. humanitarian agencies or by collecting firewood and selling it," she said. "My children get sick because of the floodwaters, and there is no medical service in this place."

She said she eagerly waits for peace to return to the country, with the belief that medical services will follow "that will be even enough for us."

One of her nieces, Nyankun Dhoal, delivered her seventh child into a world of water in November.

"I feel very tired and my body feels really weak," she said. One of her breasts was swollen, and her baby had rashes. She wishes for food, and for plastic sheeting so that she and her family can stay dry.

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The mud sucks at people's feet as they engage in the daily struggles to hold back the waters and find something to eat.

Nyaduoth Kun, a mother of five, said the floods destroyed her family's crops and life has been a struggle for months, with people selling their prized cattle to buy food that's never enough.

The family eats just two meals a day and the adults often go to bed on empty stomachs, she said. She has begun collecting water lilies and wild fruits for food.

She said she had little knowledge of the coronavirus pandemic ravaging other parts of the world and spreading largely undetected in poorly resourced South Sudan. "There are many diseases living among us, so we can't figure out if it's coronavirus or not," she said.

Instead, her fear is that the makeshift water dike around their home could collapse at any time, flooding the young children.

READ MORE: Boko Haram claims kidnapping of Nigeria students in north

The chief of Wangchot village, James Diang, made the decision early during the flooding to send badly affected children to the town centre after several drowned "and everything was being destroyed rapidly."

Now cattle are dying, he said, and survivors have been transported to drier areas.

Remaining residents are eating tree leaves and sometimes fish to survive, he said. Fevers and joint pain are widespread.

When there is no canoe to transport people during times that waters surge, "our children die in our hands because we are helpless," he said.

He hopes, like everyone, for sustainable peace, and for an improved dike so the community can have enough dry ground for planting.

The people of South Sudan put their trust in President Salva Kiir and former armed opposition leader Riek Machar to lead during this transition period, "but now they are failing us," said the government's acting deputy director in the area, Kueth Gach Monydhot. "We don't have hope, we lost confidence in them."

READ MORE: North Korea's Kim thanks people in rare New Year's cards

The situation in Fangak county remains volatile, with almost all of its more than 60 villages affected by the flooding and "no response from the government," he said. "Do you think they will plan for other people when they have failed to implement the peace agreement?"

At the clinic in Old Fangak run by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, Nyalual Chol said the dike she tried to build against the floodwaters collapsed, and her home quickly collapsed, too.

She had been alone at home with her four children. As with many families, her husband was away on duty in another part of the country as a soldier.

She reached the clinic by canoe after an hour of travel, seeking help for her sick child. There, she also received a ration of food.

The Doctors Without Borders project coordinator in Old Fangak, Dorothy I. Esonwune, recalled the sight of newly displaced people sheltering under trees without mats, blankets or mosquito nets.

Meanwhile, the charity's mobile clinics were suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic, further complicating efforts to reach sick people stranded by the flooding.

"The water continues to rise and the dikes continue to break and there are people still displaced, yet they don't have the main necessities," she said, describing several people often crammed into a single shelter.

Now the international community has rung the alarm about likely famine in another flood-hit part of Jonglei state.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization representative in South Sudan, Meshak Malo, has appealed to the parties that signed the country's peace accord to cease violence and ensure safe humanitarian access to prevent the dire situation from turning into a full-blown catastrophe.

The new report of likely famine is an eye-opener and a signal to the government, which has not endorsed its findings, said the chairman of the National Bureau of Statistics, Isaiah Chol Aruai.

"There is no way that the government would ignore or downplay an emergency when it's really found out to be an emergency," he said.

Victoria Police are searching for a man and woman who fled officers at Melbourne Airport.

The pair disembarked a flight from Canberra just before 11am on New Year's Day.

"They were spoken to by authorised officers and informed they would be required to quarantine for 14 days as per current CHO directions," Victoria Police said in a statement.

READ MORE: Victoria's new coronavirus outbreak grows to 10

"The pair then ran from the officer, fleeing the airport and were picked up by a vehicle outside."

The 26-year-old man and 24-year-old woman normally reside in NSW are believed to be in the Sunbury area.

Police have released photos of them and an image of a vehicle similar to one they were travelling in.

Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

The Health Department confirmed on Friday night that another two COVID cases had emerged in Victoria with clear links to existing infections that were seeded at the Smiling Buffalo Thai Restaurant earlier in the week.

READ MORE: Thousands race to beat border lockout

The two new positive cases dined at the restaurant on December 21 before travelling into southern NSW where they learned of the outbreak and got tested before returning home.

Because the new infections were identified in NSW they will only be officially added to Victoria's tally on Saturday, bringing it to 10.

Cars have queued for up to five hours awaiting a coronavirus test in Melbourne today, with no guarantee of reaching the front as the number of cases grew.

Several south eastern testing stations were forced to close early, with dedicated frontline staff simply unable to meet the demand of people urgently seeking a COVID test.

Late today the Health Department confirmed another two COVID cases have emerged in Victoria with clear links to existing infections that were seeded at the Smiling Buffalo Thai Restaurant earlier this week.

READ MORE: Thousands race to return to Victoria as NSW border shuts

The two new positive cases dined at the restaurant on December 21 before travelling into southern NSW where they learned of the outbreak and got tested before returning home.

Because the new infections were identified in NSW they will only be officially added to Victoria's tally on Saturday, bringing it to 10.

Authorities are yet to pin down who started the outbreak.

"Until we identify the absolute index case and its connections to every other case, of course we remain concerned," COVID Testing Commander Jeroen Weimar said.

Health Minister Martin Foley is almost convinced it came from interstate.

READ MORE: More than 70 close contacts are isolating in Melbourne

"The NSW link is still our primary line of investigation for this outbreak," he said.

"We expect genomic testing to come through very shortly and to assist us in confirming the lines of enquiry for our investigation."

More than 170 close contacts and positive cases are in self-isolation, spread across several suburbs and beyond Melbourne into Leongatha and Barwon Heads.

"This is not just a Bayside issue, this is a wider Victorian exposure risk," Mr Weimar said.

There were 13,108 test results received yesterday.

Face masks have become compulsory (except in your own home), house guests have been cut from 30 to 15 souring last night's New Year celebrations.

Border shuts

There have been long queues at the border as thousands race home from NSW before they're locked out at midnight. From tomorrow, any returning Victorian will need to be tested and also self-quarantine for 14 days.

"I stood here some time ago and reconsider going to NSW, don't go to Sydney," Mr Foley said.

"Reconsider going to NSW because the border can change quickly on the basis of public health advice and we saw that happen yesterday. Today, I say, if you are returning to Victoria as of today you must get tested and you must isolate for 14 days." 

Mr Weimar warned returned travellers about further lengthy queues at the Victorian border.

"The border to NSW will shut at 11.59pm tonight. Anybody who is at queue at the border at 11.59pm will be allowed to go through but that does not extend to people wandering through at 8am tomorrow morning," Mr Weimar told reporters.

"So please, if you are in NSW and you want to be back in Victoria you need to leave now if you haven't left already.

"You need to prepare for a lengthy wait at the border. So please ensure you have fuel, water, food and also whatever you need to isolate safely when you get home."

He said warnings about the risks of getting stranded "on the wrong side of the border" have been issued for days so travellers must decide where they intend to stay.

"If that's NSW that's absolutely fine, if you intend to return to your home in Victoria you need to be getting on the road now," he said.

Victoria's Acting Premier Jacinta Allan said it was a difficult but necessary decision.

"We have to do everything we possibly can to lock in the situation we have here in Victoria, keep ahead of where case numbers might be, especially in light of case numbers coming out of NSW and to protect the precious gains we have achieved over the course of 2020 here in Victoria," she said.

The latest directions in Victoria come as NSW recorded 10 new cases yesterday, with five linked to the Avalon cluster.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un thanked the public for their trust and support "in the difficult times" and wished them happiness and good health in his first New Year's Day cards sent to his people.

Kim usually gives a televised speech on January 1, but he is widely expected to skip it this year since he will address the country's first ruling party congress in five years sometime in early January.

"I will work hard to bring earlier the new era in which the ideals and desires of our people will come true," Kim said in his letter, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

IN PICTURES: New Year's Eve celebrations look like never before

"I offer thanks to the people for having invariably trusted and supported our party even in the difficult times," he said.

"I sincerely wish all the families across the country greater happiness and beloved people, good health."

North Korea is one of the world's most cloistered countries, and it's virtually impossible to independently confirm whether all its 25 million people received Kim's letter.

KCNA said the letter was handwritten by Kim. The last time the North Korean leader sent such a letter to ordinary citizens was on January 1, 1995, by Kim's father, Kim Jong Il, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry.

READ MORE: Kim Jong-Un's sister slams Seoul over questioning zero-virus claim

Kim, who succeeded his father upon his death in late 2011, is facing the toughest challenges of his nine-year rule due to the pandemic, several natural disasters last summer and persistent US-led sanctions amid a diplomatic impasse over his nuclear program.

Kim will likely use the Workers' Party congress as a venue to muster a stronger unity and lay out new development goals for the next few years.

North Korea's pandemic-related border closure with China, its biggest trading partner, is hurting the economy. Bilateral trade volume in the first 11 months of 2020 plunged by about 79 per cent from the same period in 2019, analyst Song Jaeguk at Seoul's IBK Economic Research Institute said.

READ MORE: Kim Jong-un 'gets experimental coronavirus vaccine' from China

The congress, the first since 2016, is officially the party's top decision-making body though real day-to-day decisions are made by Kim and his close associates. The rubber stamp body of delegates is expected to endorse Kim's new initiatives without major debates.

State media didn't say when exactly the meeting will take place. In 2016, the congress was held for four days.

Ushering in the new year, a large crowd packed Pyongyang's main square to watch fireworks, a concert and a flag-hoisting ceremony. State TV showed people wearing masks and heavy coats, waving and standing close together.

North Korea has steadfastly claimed to be coronavirus-free — an assertion doubted by outsiders. But experts also say any outbreak likely wasn't widespread and so North Korea considered it safe to hold big events like the party congress in Pyongyang.

READ MORE: North Korea executed people to prevent COVID-19 spread

Also Friday, North Korea said it has successfully completed "an 80-day battle," a productivity campaign it often launches to press citizens to work extra hours and report bigger production numbers ahead of major political events. During the congress, experts say North Korea will likely underscore building a stronger self-reliant economy to tackle the difficulties in an attempt to squeeze people to work harder.

KCNA said "the all-people advance by dint of self-reliance" achieved "a proud victory of the historic 80-day battle." It said the North Koreans have either fulfilled or exceeded newly set quotas at factories, mines, farms, flooding recovery works, anti-coronavirus steps and various other areas.

NYE is like no other, with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing celebrations to take on a different look

A 51-year-old man has been arrested and charged following the death of a cyclist in a collision in Adelaide's west this morning.

The crash happened just before 7.30am on Seaview Road, Henley Beach in South Australia.

Emergency services arrived to find a 60-year-old cyclist had been struck by the car.

The man, from nearby Brighton, died at the scene from his injuries.

The driver, a 51-year-old man from Grange, was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital to be assessed.

He was arrested a short time later and charged with causing death by dangerous driving and aggravated driving without due care.

The man was granted bail to appear in the Port Adelaide Magistrates Court on 17 February.

Most of the North Island enjoyed fair weather on New Year’s Day but it was a different story for the South Island, and the rain is set to spread. MetService forecaster Aidan Pyselman said the first day of 2021 brought clear skies…

A Navy-inspired restaurant has been revealed as a so-called missing link between the Croydon and Wollongong coronavirus clusters.

New South Wales recorded three new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, all three from Sydney's western suburbs. Two of the cases are from the same household.

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said none of the three new cases were linked to the Avalon cluster on Sydney's Northern Beaches.

Instead, Dr Chant said investigations found a case from the Croydon cluster and a case from the Wollongong cluster both visited the Swallowed Anchor restaurant in Wollongong on the 19 December.

"There may have been a transmission event at that venue," she said.

"This was before either the case from Croydon cluster or the case from Wollongong had their infection, and what we're looking at is whether they were both infected at that time and date, so this is a triangulation piece.

"It may turn out to not be case but for the abundant caution, everyone at that venue on the 19th of December needs to immediately get tested and isolate."

Dr Chant said genomic testing had now proven a link between the Avalon, Croydon and Wollongong clusters.

More than 32,000 people in NSW came forward for testing yesterday.

NSW venues

NSW Health has been notified of the following new venues of concern:

Anyone who visited the following venues at the listed times should get tested immediately and self-isolate until you receive further advice from NSW Health.

• Eden: Great Southern Hotel on 30 December between 5pm and 6.30pm
• Bermagui: Bermi's Beachside Café on December 31 between 9am and 10am

Anyone who visited any of the following western Sydney venues at the listed times is considered a casual contact and must get tested immediately and isolate until a negative result is received.

• Berala: BWS on 22 December between 12.45pm to 9.15pm; Wednesday December 23 between 12.45pm to 9.15pm; December 27 between 12.45pm and 8.15pm; December 29 between 1.45pm and 9.15pm; December 30 between 12.45pm and 9.15pm and December 31 between 8.30am and 5pm.
• Ashfield: Bunnings Ashfield on 28 December between 12pm and 1pm.

Anyone who visited any of the following venues at the listed times should monitor for symptoms.

• Sydney CBD: Culture Kings on December 28 between 1pm and 2pm.
• Strathfield: Woolworths Strathfield Plaza on 20 December between 9am and 9.10am.
• Berala: Woolworths Berala on 24 December between 9pm and 9.30pm; and December 26 between 7pm and 7.30pm; and December 28 between 7.15pm and 7.45pm.
• Haberfield: Clark Rubber Haberfield on December 28 between 12pm and 12.15pm

A man has been pulled from the water unconscious following an emergency incident at Milford Beach on the North Shore.The man is believed to have suffered a medical event. He was unconscious after being pulled ashore but regained…