- The US is ringing in the new year amid Covid-19 surge experts warn is exploding at unprecedented speed and could alter daily life for many Americans during the first month of 2022.
- The nation broke records at least four times this week for its seven-day average of new daily Covid-19 cases, reporting an all-time high of more than 386,000 new daily infections Friday, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.
- “I realize that students prefer to be in person, and so do I,” Samuel L. Stanley Jr., the university’s president, said in a statement.
The United States is ringing in the new year amid a Covid-19 surge that experts say is exploding at an unprecedented rate and might disrupt many Americans’ daily lives in the first month of 2022 as reported by CNN.
Daily infections
“Omicron is truly everywhere,” Dr Megan Ranney, a professor of emergency medicine at Brown University’s School of Public Health, told CNN on Friday night.
The nation broke records at least four times this week for its seven-day average of new daily Covid-19 cases, reporting an all-time high of more than 386,000 new daily infections Friday, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.
The high case count is already causing disruptions in the country.
“Like everyone in New York, we’ve been affected by the COVID surge.
We’re running as much train service as we can with the operators we have available,” the MTA wrote on Twitter Thursday.
The state’s seven-day positivity rate is 19.79%.
Growing list
Healthcare services — exhausted after several surges of the virus and now stretched thin again by a growing number of Covid-19 patients — are also already feeling impacts.
The University of Maryland Capital Region Health this week joined a growing list of medical centres in the state to activate emergency protocols after a sharp rise in cases fueled staffing shortages and overwhelmed emergency departments.
Those include flight disruptions as well, he said, because of TSA agent and aircrew absences.
On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration said an “increased number” of its employees were testing positive for the virus, and “to maintain safety, traffic volume at some facilities could be reduced, which might result in delays during busy periods.”
Previous rules
The latest surge, which has sent case numbers exploding across the globe, is fueled by the Omicron variant, the most contagious coronavirus strain yet, health experts say.
“At the beginning of this pandemic… we all were taught, you have significant exposure if you’re within six feet of somebody and you’re in contact with them for more than 15 minutes.
All these rules are out the window,” Reiner said.
in the past week, several states have reported new case and hospitalization highs, shattering previous records.
In a news conference, the governor said the number was roughly “quadruple from just two weeks ago, and four times as many cases than during the height of last winter’s surge.”
Returning to school
With the virus spreading, some staff members and experts are expressing concern about what school reopenings could mean.
“There will be pediatric hospitalizations,” Hotez said.
“And what’s going to be the other tough piece in the next weeks, keeping the schools open, because of this high transmissibility — especially if you start seeing absences of school teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria staff.”
“Using Monday as a day for testing and analyzing data will allow our school districts to make prudent decisions around staffing needs so they can continue in-person learning for students if it is safe or develop contingency plans if a district deems it to be necessary,” Merrie Najimy, the association’s president, said in a statement.
Citing the surging Covid-19 cases, APS said the district elected to postpone in-person learning until Monday, January 10.
But it is important that we do so in a safe manner.
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Source: CNN
