Millions of Americans have started traveling across the United States for the holidays despite the rapid advance of the Omicron variant, which is rekindling fears about the pandemic and sparking a new rush on testing.
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With 171,000 daily cases on average over seven days, according to the Covid Act Now site, the wave due to Omicron, already largely dominant among new infections, is about to exceed the peak of that due to the Delta variant.
Although policies and restrictions vary from state to state, President Joe Biden set the tone on Tuesday by urging his compatriots not to “panic” and, thanks to vaccines and tests, to celebrate Christmas with their loved ones. as expected – however avoiding too large gatherings.
Result: traditional trips to join the family often across the country were in full swing Thursday.
According to estimates by the American Automobile Association, more than 109 million people were expected to leave their immediate area by plane, train or car between December 23 and January 2 – up 34% from the year last.
For example, the airline American Airlines had planned 5,300 flights Thursday, as many as the two previous days. “This represents 86% of our flight program for the same period of 2019”, during the last end-of-year celebrations before COVID-19 came at length to obstruct most of the trips, the company said in a statement.
These movements are accompanied by a vaccination rate that seems to be on the rise, especially for booster doses of which 1.3 million were inoculated over 24 hours according to the latest figures made public on Wednesday.
“The best gift you can give yourself is a booster dose” which protects “much better” against severe forms of the disease, tweeted Cyrus Shahpar, White House official for COVID-19 data.
Test rush
In addition to this thrill on the vaccine side, it is a real rush on test sites and self-testing kits that we have seen in recent days.
In the New York neighborhood of Queens, where the federal government has opened three new sites, Gabriel Arevalo explains wanting to make sure it is negative before the holidays.
“Even though I’m vaccinated, I know you can still carry the virus, so I just try to make sure that I don’t unnecessarily expose other people, especially at this time, during the holidays and on the go. winter, where we’re all on top of each other, ”he says.
“It is prudent for everyone to be tested at home, at their convenience, before meeting with members of their family,” abounds Marisha Praman, another resident of Queens, while the municipality also distributes 2000 kits of screening in each of the city’s five boroughs.
Overall, the American authorities hope that the vaccine-test-mask policy will be enough to pass the course without increasing the new restrictions.
The New York City Hall thus confirmed Thursday that the traditional New Year’s party in Times Square would take place, even if it imposed reduced capacities and the wearing of the compulsory mask.
To deal with the new wave, Washington is also now counting on two pills against COVID-19.
The day after the authorization of that developed by the laboratory Pfizer, the United States Medicines Agency (FDA) gave the green light Thursday to the pill from Merck, intended for adults at high risk.
And in case the Omicron wave does overwhelm the American hospital system anyway, the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), the main health agency in the United States, relaxed their guidelines on Thursday for the isolation of patients. caregivers infected with COVID-19.
The latter will be able, if they are asymptomatic, to return to work after seven days of quarantine – against ten days previously – and obtaining a negative test. “This isolation time can be shortened in the event of staff shortages”, even specify the CDC.