Washington: The Covid-19 situation is exploding at an unprecedented speed and could alter daily life for millions of Americans during the first month of the New Year, the media reported on Sunday.
According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, the US reported an all-time high of more than 386,000 new daily infections on Friday.
“New York continues to break its own record, adding 85,476 reported Covid-19 cases, according to Saturday’s briefing from New York Governor, Kathy Hochul,” reports CNN.
The number of one day case additions has increased 219 per cent since December 27, when New York reported an addition of 26,737 cases.
“Omicron is truly everywhere. What I am so worried about over the next month or so is that our economy is going to shut down, not because of policies from the federal government or from the state governments, but rather because so many of us are ill,” Dr Megan Ranney, a professor of emergency medicine at Brown University’s School of Public Health, was quoted as saying in the report.
The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world’s highest number of cases and deaths at 54,859,966 and 825,816, according to the Johns Hopkins’ Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE).
New Jersey recorded more than 28,000 new Covid-19 cases through PCR testing, Governor Phil Murphy posted on Twitter.
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”.
In Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine has announced the deployment of about 1,250 National Guard members as hospitals struggle with staffing shortages.
Over 2,000 flights were cancelled on New Year’s Day as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus continued to upend airline operations during the holiday travel season in the US.
According to FlightAware, a flight-tracking website, 2,311 flights entering, leaving or within the US were cancelled as of 7.30 a.m. on Saturday, and another 424 flights were delayed.
Covid hospitalisations for children jumped 58 per cent across the US in the last week, according to the latest data by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The US is averaging 260 paediatric Covid-19 hospitalisations a day, up nearly 30 per cent within a week, showed that data from December 21-December 27.
According to CBS News, unvaccinated people of all ages are at increased risk, including children.
(IANS)
