One million cases in 24 hours in the United States, 270,000 in France, more than 200,000 in the United Kingdom: COVID-19 contaminations continued to increase on Tuesday across the world, threatening certain sectors with major dysfunctions.
Many personalities are among the new “positives”: from the Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf and his wife, Queen Silvia, to Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani and his Botswana counterpart Mokgweetsi Masisi, through the Paris goalkeeper SG Gianluigi Donnarumma and footballers Lucas Hernandez and Tanguy Nianzou from Bayern Munich, where no less than eight players are affected.
Facing a worrying fifth wave, the United States has recorded a world record of more than one million cases in 24 hours, according to data from Johns Hopkins University stopped Monday evening.
This figure should be taken with caution, however, as the number of cases recorded on Monday is generally very high, especially after a three-day weekend as was the case with the New Year in the United States. However, this is more than double the cases recorded the previous Monday, after the three-day Christmas weekend.
A record also in Australia, with nearly 50,000 cases a day, causing a scramble for screening tests despite their cost.
” Fear of heights “
France has recorded more than 270,000 cases in 24 hours, a record level. The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, evoked figures which make you “dizzy”. The positivity rate, or the proportion of cases among those tested, now exceeds 15% in the country, close to its autumn 2020 records.
The United Kingdom, on Tuesday, recorded a new record of more than 200,000 cases in 24 hours, but the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, again refused to toughen health measures.
The current wave of the epidemic, relaunched at the end of 2021 by the arrival of the Omicron variant, considerably more contagious than the previous ones even if its severity seems limited, is leading to an increase in absences for illness. A phenomenon which causes dysfunctions in several sectors, in particular that of health.
At least six hospitals in the United Kingdom declared “critical incidents” on Tuesday, meaning that the situation could affect priority care.
The lack of staff was also affecting the start of the school year in England, where the government renewed its call for retired teachers to come in as reinforcements.
Faced with the Omicron tidal wave, most governments have imposed new restrictions, including encouraging teleworking, while putting pressure on the unvaccinated.
In France, the government wants to institute a vaccination passport instead of the health passport: by virtue of a text the examination of which had a hiccup during the night due to a blockage of the opposition, but which should logically be adopted in the coming days, the unvaccinated will no longer have access to leisure activities or to restaurants and bars.
Cyprus, for its part, could announce new measures on Wednesday, such as restrictions on nightclubs, places of entertainment and home visits, while the Island has the highest rate of contamination in the world (2,505 cases for 100,000 inhabitants).
The Indian capital New Delhi has also imposed new measures, including confinement during weekends.
Cruises affected
The Philippines will extend the restrictions to areas around the capital Manila, with some 25 million people affected: the unvaccinated will have to stay at home for the duration of the restrictions – until mid-January – and will not be able to only go out to buy basic necessities or exercise.
China has for its part confined more than a million additional inhabitants in a locality in the center of the country after the discovery of three asymptomatic cases, one month before the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The epidemic is also beginning to affect the cruise industry again. The Brazilian Maritime Cruise Association announced on Monday the suspension of cruises until January 21, due to “differences” on the application of anti-COVID protocols, after the appearance of outbreaks of contamination on three ships. Nearly 3,000 passengers, mostly German, were also disembarked Monday in Lisbon after the detection of several cases on board.
Fashion is not spared either. Italian stylist Giorgio Armani has announced the cancellation of his shows scheduled for January during Milan Fashion Week, Italy, and Paris Haute Couture Week, due to the increase in COVID-19 cases.
The extreme contagiousness of the Omicron variant is not, however, for the time being accompanied by a significant increase in deaths. Since the discovery of the virus in December 2019, the pandemic has killed more than 5.4 million people, according to an AFP count.
But the multiplication of cases of Omicron around the world could increase the risk of the appearance of a new, more dangerous variant, the World Health Organization warned on Tuesday.