Omicron has not yet peaked, warns US Surgeon General

Stores across the Netherlands re-opened after weeks of lockdown on Saturday, and Amsterdam’s mood was further lightened with thousands of free tulips given by growers sailing in the canals. Pic/AP

The Omicron surge of coronavirus cases had not yet peaked in the US and the country is expected to see an increase in hospitalisations and deaths in the next few weeks, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has warned.

In an interview on CNN's "State of the Union," Dr Murthy noted the "good news" of the plateaus and drops in known cases in the Northeast, especially in New York City and New Jersey. But "the challenge is that the entire country is not moving at the same pace", he said, adding "we shouldn't expect a national peak in the coming days"."The next few weeks will be tough," he said.

The highly contagious Omicron variant has fueled anexplosive surge of known cases, with an average of more than 800,000 new cases a day reported on Saturday, according to a New York Times database. The next several weeks would overwhelm hospitals and staff, Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, was quoted as saying.

"Right now we're at about 150,000 people in the hospital with Covid," he said on Fox News Sunday. "That's more than we've ever had. I expect those numbers to get substantially higher," he added.

Gene variant that protects against Covid-19 identified

Researchers have identified a specific gene variant that protects against severe Covid-19 infection. An international team led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden pinpointed it by studying people of different ancestries.

Unvaxxed older people face fines

Greece on Monday imposed a vaccination mandate for people over age 60, as coverage is below EU average.

95,92,171
No. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours

32,82,41,005
Total no. of cases worldwide

55,40,875
Total no. of deaths worldwide

Source: WHO/Johns Hopkins

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