The second year of the pandemic closes with an unprecedented worldwide peak of contamination both on a daily and weekly basis. Infections are made to fly by the wildfire spread of the Omicron variant, first diagnosed in South Africa and which is now becoming dominant everywhere. For the first time since the onset of the disease in the week from 23 to 29 December, the psychological milestone of one million new cases per day was crossed. Over the past seven days, more than 7.3 million new cases have been detected, averaging 1,045,000 per day
South Africa passes the Omicron peak
In South Africa, the peak of the fourth wave of infections from Covid-19 due to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, initially identified right here, could be overcome and the government begins to remove the restrictions, starting with the night curfew. According to a government statement, reported by the Bbc, although the new variant is highly transmissible, hospitalization rates have been lower than in previous waves and a marginal increase in deaths and cases and hospitalizations have decreased in almost all regions of the country. Calls for vaccination continue. In the week that ended December 25, 89,781 infections were confirmed, compared to 127,753 in the previous one. Since the start of the pandemic, South Africa has reported around 3.5 million cases of Covid-19 and over 90,000 deaths.
More vaccines but no quarantine, so South Africa challenges the variant
by Elena Dusi
Johnson: “The UK better than a year ago”
The UK is in an “incomparably better” position than a year ago, thanks to the anti-Covid vaccination campaign. This was underlined by the British premier Boris Johnson, in the year-end message to the nation. “We can say one thing with certainty: our position this December 31 is incomparably better than last year,” he said acknowledging the fears for the Omicron variant and for the increasing numbers of hospital admissions that have resulted in recent days. its leadership is hard to test.