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Coronavirus cases are on the rise around the world, adding to the negative weekend mood in many countries and causing a surge in hospital admissions, many of which are close to filling.
China has recorded the largest number of local infections since January, as the outbreak of the virus in Shaanxi Province represents one of the government’s biggest challenges so far in its “zero Covid” policy, according to what the “Bloomberg” news agency reported yesterday.
According to CNN, the number of new daily infections with the “Amicron” mutant in the United States exceeded what was monitored during the outbreak of the “Delta” mutant.
France recorded a daily record of more than 100,000 new cases, at a time when the government is studying stricter measures, while Italy also saw its highest cases, but daily cases in Germany fell further, while Russia reported the lowest level of new infections since the end of September.
In this context, Anthony Fauci, medical advisor to US President Joe Biden, called on Americans to be vigilant regarding the “Omicron” mutant, although its symptoms may be less serious because the number of cases can still put a great pressure on hospitals.
“The issue that we don’t want to be satisfied with, is that when you have such a large number of new infections, it can cause overriding the true lack of risk.”
“So if you have lots and lots of infections at a lower level of risk, it could cancel out the positive effect of having a lower risk,” said Fauci, who is head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Preliminary data from Scotland showed that the omicron was associated with a two-thirds reduction in the risk of hospitalization compared to the delta mutant.
Globally, the total number of registered cases reached 279 million, and the number of deaths reached 5.39 million, while more than 8.95 billion doses of vaccine were administered.
In addition, more than 7,000 flights around the world were canceled during the Christmas holiday weekend, and thousands were postponed, according to a website specialized in tracking air traffic yesterday, in light of the outbreak of the highly contagious “Omicron” mutant.
Bad weather is exacerbating the turmoil in the travel sector in the United States, where storms are expected to cause chaos on the roads in the west of the country.
FlightAware website reported that more than 2,000 flights were canceled yesterday, including more than 570 flights coming from or heading to American airports, while more than 4,000 other flights were postponed.
Pilots, flight attendants and other employees requested sick leave or were forced to undergo quarantine after they had contact with people infected with “Covid” or contracted the epidemic, forcing companies “Lufthansa, Delta, United Airlines, JetBlue, Alaska Airlines” and other airlines to cancel flights for a period of the year. Travel culminates in it.
About 2,800 flights were canceled yesterday, around the world, including more than 990 flights coming from or heading to airports in the United States, and the number of delayed flights exceeded 8,500 flights.
While unusually warm temperatures hang over the states in the eastern United States, the US National Weather Service warned of storms that include extreme frosts and freezing in large parts of the American West.
The authority added in a statement: “Severely cold weather and a wave of moisture from the Pacific Ocean lead to prolonged snowfall on the mountains, in addition to rainfall in coastal areas and valleys, some of which are heavy at times.” Snowfall is expected to be from 61 to 122 centimeters over the weekend, and accumulation may be greater in some areas such as the northern and central Sierras in California and Oregon, according to the Met Office.
And the authority pointed out that “travel will be very difficult to sometimes impossible from the Sierras to the Central Rocky Mountains during the weekend because of the snow.”
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