Previous Corona’s panic will not be repeated with Omicron

overwhelm COVID-19 pandemic On the New Year’s celebrations, Friday, again this year due to the restrictions imposed in a large number of countries in the world, with the “tsunami” increasing infections with Covid-19, which puts pressure on health systems, while a health expert reassured that previous waves of Corona that sparked panic. Previously it would not be replicated with a mutant omicron.

Neither Paris nor Athens nor Mexico will celebrate New Year’s Eve. “Music will be banned,” Greek Health Minister Tanos Plifris said in a televised message on Wednesday, and “nightclubs and restaurants will close at midnight. And on the night of December 31, they will be allowed to remain open until two in the morning, but without music.”

In France, nightclubs will remain closed on the night of December 31 and for several more weeks. In Paris and on the occasion of the New Year, the authorities also announced the closure of nightclubs on Saturday 1 January and Sunday at 2:00.

And French Health Minister Olivier Veran warned before the deputies that “more than a million French people are currently infected with the Corona virus” and “10% of the French people from my contacts” are infected.

In Mexico City Council canceled New Year’s celebrations, while Cyprus banned dancing in public places.

Insufficient restrictions

In Germany, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach warned that the new restrictions that came into force on Tuesday “will not be enough” in the country face mutant omicron Which is expected to cause a “sharp rise” in the number of infections in the coming weeks.

In Germany, gatherings of more than ten people are prohibited, even for vaccinated people and those who have recovered from the virus. As for the unvaccinated, the number was limited to two people from another family.

Tsunami injuries

Omicron is currently caused by A sharp increase in the number of injuries With Covid-19 in many European countries, some of which have set records since the beginning of the epidemic.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization spoke of a “tsunami” that puts “tremendous pressure on exhausted health workers and health systems on the verge of collapse”, two years after the start of an epidemic that killed more than 5.4 million people.

Worldwide, more than 935,000 cases of Covid-19 were detected daily, on average, between December 22 and 28, a number that has not been recorded since the beginning of the epidemic at the end of 2019, and represents an increase of 37%, based on official figures.

Most of the new infections were detected in Europe, where a large number of countries recorded new records.

In Britain, more than ten thousand people are hospitalized, in a precedent since early March.

And Denmark, which is currently with the highest rate of injuries compared to the population of the countries of the world, recorded a new record number of 23,228 injuries within 24 hours.

The same is true of Spain, even though it is considered one of the best countries in terms of vaccination. An average of 100,760 new infections were recorded within a week.

With more than 265,000 daily infections on average a week ago, the United States is also facing a record rise in the number of infections with the most widespread mutated omicron.

But so far, the outbreak of the epidemic has not led to an overall increase in the number of deaths, which has been declining for three weeks in the world.

In China, which is facing an epidemic less than forty days before the Winter Olympics in Beijing, the authorities have taken more stringent measures.

After the city of Qian, which has been under quarantine for a week and is currently facing difficulties in supplies, tens of thousands of residents of a neighborhood in Yan’an City, 300 kilometers from Qian, will spend the New Year in their homes in quarantine.

Previous waves will not return

At the same time, John Bell, professor of medicine at the University of Oxford and adviser to life sciences in the UK government, said that the horrific scenes seen in previous waves of Corona are today “from history.”

Bell analyzed the data from the United Kingdom, speaking to BBC4 Radio, and Bell said that the number of people in intensive care units who had been vaccinated was still “very, very low”, noting that “the rate of serious injuries and death did not They’ve changed fundamentally since we’ve all been vaccinated and that’s an important thing to remember.”

He continued, “The horrific scenes that we saw a year ago – the intensive care units are full and the numbers of deaths – have become history today and I think we must rest assured.”

Discussing the Omicron mutant, he added, “The disease appears to be less severe, and many people spend a relatively short time in hospital. They don’t need high-flow oxygen, and the average hospital stay appears to be three days, which is not the same disease that we’ve seen. a year ago”.

And a British government study published on Thursday stated that people are much less likely to be hospitalized with Omicron than the previous Delta strain.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland began imposing new restrictions to limit the spread of Omicron, but England stuck to existing requests to stay at home and increase the wearing of masks, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday postponed the imposition of any new restrictions before the end of this year.