The omicron variant continues to sow chaos in air transport, with thousands of flights canceled around the world since Christmas weekend, and its rapid advance would lead France to announce new sanitary restrictions on Monday to face the pandemic.
Europe is the region of the world that registers the most cases in the last seven days, with 2,901,073 (55% of the world total), and the highest number of deaths 24,287 in one week (53% of the total), followed by the United States / Canada (10,269 dead, 22%).
In France, President Emmanuel Macron will meet by videoconference to the health defense council at 3:00 p.m. GMT. An hour before, the council of ministers will approve the bill to replace the health passport with the vaccination passport.
France surpassed 100,000 new cases in 24 hours for the first time since the start of the pandemic on Saturday.
In the United States, an average of more than 190,000 new cases have been recorded daily in the last seven days, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, and the health authorities of New York have sounded the alarm about hospitalizations of children under five years of age , who are not of the age to be vaccinated, since they are half of the income in the city.
The American skier Mikaela Shiffrin, who leads the Women’s Alpine Skiing World Cup, announced on Monday on her social media that she had tested positive for COVID and that she would not contest the competitions on Tuesday and Wednesday in Lienz, Austria.
In addition to the 8,300 international and domestic air connections canceled over the holiday weekend, tens of thousands of flights were delayed between Friday and Sunday, unfortunately for those looking to return to travel after the 2020 Christmas overshadowed by the pandemic.
– “Direct impact” –
According to the air surveillance website, FlightAware, the disturbances continue on Monday and Tuesday (2,100 and 700, flights canceled, for now).
Companies such as Lufthansa, Delta, United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue or British Airways had to cancel flights since the pandemic caused a shortage of pilots and other members of the aircraft crew, who must maintain a quarantine when exposed to the covid- 19.
“The peak of omicron cases this week across the country (United States) had a direct impact on our crews and the people who manage operations.”Explained the American company United Airlines.
The weather also did not help in the management of flights in the United States: snow storms in the West and falling temperatures further complicate an already chaotic situation.
Chinese airlines such as China Eastern and Air China canceled 2,000 flights this weekend, many of which passed through the city of Xi’an, where its 13 million people are confined.
In China, which has been applying a “zero COVID strategy“Xi’an promised on Monday to impose measures”more strict”Against the epidemic risk, after the massive testing of hundreds of cases in the metropolis.
The inhabitants of the city have been confined since Thursday, and can only leave their homes every three days to buy essential products. As of Monday, only people working against the epidemic can drive around the city.
– Petri dish –
On the high seas, the coronavirus also disrupted the holidays. According to the Washington Post, several ships were denied entry into Caribbean ports.
“We sail aboard a Petri dish“The containers used in laboratories to grow bacteria, said Ashley Peterson, a 34-year-old passenger on the Carnival Freedom cruise ship, who was unable to moor off the Dutch island of Bonaire.
In a statement sent to AFP, Carnival Cruises confirms that “a small number of people on board were isolated due to a positive COVID test “.
The CDC, the main public health agency in the United States, says that more than 60 cruise ships are being investigated by health authorities after the appearance of COVID-19 cases on board.
The COVID pandemic has caused at least 5’398,049 deaths in the world since the WHO office in China confirmed the appearance of the disease in December 2019, according to an AFP count on Monday from official sources
But the WHO believes that the balance could be between two or three times higher.
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