Italy, the United States, France and Great Britain. Today, all four of these countries have recorded the absolute record of infections since the onset of the disease. 78,313 positivities were detected in Italy, 117,093 in Great Britain , 179,807 in France and 512,533 in the United States .
In the United States , the total number of people infected with the virus has risen to 52,794,834, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University and the total death toll from Covid has risen to 818,371. There is a slight drop of 5% in the weekly average of deaths from Covid. The Omicron variant, in the week that ended December 25, constituted 59% of new coronavirus cases, up from 23% the previous week. And what emerges from government data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
While the rapid spread of Omicron leaves thousands of people in quarantine at home, the United States has decided to halve the isolation period for asymptomatic infected, bringing it from 10 to 5 days, and to eliminate it completely for third-dose vaccinated people who have had contact with positives. The measure alleviates the inconvenience caused by the shortage of personnel in many sectors due precisely to the increase in infections, as in the case of the thousands of flights left on the ground since the Christmas weekend, and some experts have criticized the absence of mandatory tests at the end isolation, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention justified the decision by saying that most of the infections occur in the two days before and in the two days following the appearance of symptoms.
Cases skyrocket from the United States to Europe . Denmark _becomes the country with the highest incidence rate in the world, with 1,612 cases per 100,000 people, and Spain records record numbers: 214,619 new cases and 120 deaths since Thursday, in addition to reaching the highest incidence level since the beginning of the pandemic (1,206 new cases per 100 thousand inhabitants over 14 days).
New record also in the United Kingdom : 129,471 infections in one day, with 18 deaths recorded (the figure does not include Scotland and Northern Ireland, while in England the record figure of 117,093 cases was reported). And in France , where 179,807 infections have been recorded in the last 24 hours, while the deaths have been 242.
Meanwhile, Finlandit becomes off limits for unvaccinated foreign tourists. The country of lakes is the first in the EU to take a step destined to cause discussion also in the corridors of European institutions, having opted for an absolute ban on entry for non-residents who are not immunized or cured. More generally, it is a black Tuesday for Europe in the battle against the coronavirus. Omicron is rampant everywhere.
The new variant, after Denmark and Portugal, has also become dominant in the Netherlands and Switzerland . Scandinavia is among the European regions that is facing a very rapid rise in infections. And Denmarkit has the highest rate of Covid-19 infections in the world, with 1,612 cases per 100,000 people. The Guardian reports this, recalling that the country of 5.8 million inhabitants yesterday marked a new record of daily infections, for the first time over 15 thousand in 24 hours (exactly 16,164). Omicron is the predominant variant in the country, where the percentage of tampons per resident is also very high. The five countries with the highest incidence rate, in the last seven days, are all European, according to the AFP count based on official data. Germany , where
the so-called lockdown of the unvaccinated is in force, seems to hold up for the moment, while Belgiumrecords a moderate but steady decline in infections and, thanks to a ruling by the Council of State which annulled the royal decree of December 22, will see cinemas and theaters reopen in the next few hours.
Record infections also in Spain. Updating the data relating to Covid-19 after a four-day hiatus, the country’s health authorities reported 214,619 new cases and 120 deaths since Thursday on Monday evening. The incidence has risen to 1,206 new cases per 100 thousand inhabitants over 14 days, it had never been higher: at the peak of infections in January, which so far had been the time of greatest spread of the virus in Spain, the figure had been 900 out of 100 thousand inhabitants. The rapid spread of the infections is largely attributed to the Omicron variant, which scientists say is spreading faster than previous variants, although the number of infected patients who need hospitalization is proportionally lower than in previous waves. According to official data, 7.5% of the beds in Spain
Meanwhile in China , the city of Xi’an, where 13 million people have been put in lockdown, has registered 175 new cases of Covid-19, an increase compared to previous days, an epidemic that the authorities attribute to the Delta variant.
