The Omicron variant continued to seriously disrupt air transport on Monday, with thousands of flights canceled since Christmas weekend and a meteoric epidemic progression, which also forced France to take new measures, including teleworking. “Compulsory” three days minimum per week.
But if this very contagious variant identified in South Africa in November constitutes “a source of concern”, it “should not be a source of panic,” said US President Joe Biden for his part.
Air transport, particularly popular during this holiday season, remained disrupted Monday because of this very contagious variant.
Some 8,300 international or domestic air routes were canceled over the weekend, and tens of thousands of flights were delayed between Friday and Sunday. The disruptions continued Monday (nearly 2,500 canceled flights) and Tuesday (more than 800 at this point), according to the FlightAware website.
“A film that never ends”
In Europe, the global epicenter of the epidemic rebound, several countries have put in place new restrictions to prevent hospital congestion. The Europe region is the one with the most cases in the world, with 2,901,073 in the last seven days (55% of the world total), as well as the highest number of deaths, with 24,287 deaths last week (53% of the total), followed by the United States / Canada zone (10,269, 22%).
“All this seems to be a film that never ends”, recognized the French Prime Minister, Jean Castex, presenting the new measures to face an “extremely tense health situation”. The mark of 100,000 new daily cases was crossed on Saturday for the first time.
Thus, “from Monday and for a period of three weeks”, “recourse to teleworking will be made compulsory” when possible and “at a rate of 3 days minimum per week and if possible 4 days”, was it -he says. “Large gatherings will be limited to a gauge of 2,000 people indoors and 5,000 people outdoors”, including in sports arenas, he announced. But no postponement of the start of the school year scheduled for January 3, or curfew for the transition to the new year.
Greece will for its part close, from January 3, restaurants and bars at midnight and allow tables of only six people in these establishments. And people in businesses and public administrations must switch to 50% teleworking from January 3 until January 16.
Denmark and Iceland have announced new daily COVID-19 case records. And Norway has indicated that the new variant of the coronavirus is now in the majority in the capital, Oslo.
In China, which is preparing for the Winter Olympics (from February 4 to 20) and has been applying a “zero COVID strategy” since last year, the city of Xi’an (north) has promised to impose the measures ” most stringent ”after the screening of several hundred cases of COVID-19.
Residents of the city have been forced to stay at home since Thursday, with the right to go out only once every three days for refueling. And from Monday, only motorists involved in the fight against the epidemic have the right to get behind the wheel.
Fourth dose of vaccine
The coronavirus extends to the sea. According to the daily Washington Post, several cruise ships have thus been refused a stopover in Caribbean ports.
According to the CDC, the main public health agency in the United States, more than 60 cruise ships are under investigation by U.S. health authorities after cases of COVID-19 appeared on board.
In Israel, a hospital on Monday began administering a fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine to its caregivers, as part of a clinical trial expected to precede a nationwide campaign.
The COVID-19 pandemic has killed at least 5,398,049 worldwide since the WHO office in China reported the onset of the disease at the end of December 2019 in that country, according to a report drawn up on Monday by AFP from official sources. The World Health Organization estimates that the real toll could be two to three times higher.