America faces 2022 with more than 100 million cases and on omicron alert

America faces the last week of 2021 with a steady increase in cases of COVID-19, after exceeding 100 million cases and approaching 2.5 million deaths, while studying new measures to respond to the omicron variant, whose spread has forced the cancellation of thousands of flights and several cruises in the middle of Christmas and the end of the year.

America: 100.5 million cases and 2.4 million deaths

The World Health Organization (WHO) It already registers 276.4 million infections and 5.37 million deaths from COVID-19 globally.

America continues to be the most affected region in the world, with 36% of cases (100.5 million infected) and close to 45% of deaths (2.4 million).

Of these, almost half of the infections (46.2 million) and 62% of the deaths (1.55 million) have been registered in Latin America.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has warned of the situation on the continent, which is about to enter the third year of the pandemic with a constant increase in COVID-19 cases, especially in North America, where last week there was a rise in the number of 36% of infections.

Meanwhile, there was a decrease in cases and deaths in areas of Central and South America, although countries such as Bolivia reported a considerable weekly increase in infections (13%), while in Ecuador and Argentina they also grew, although to a lesser extent.

More than twenty territories confirm omicron

According to the most recent reports, the omicron variant has been reported in a score of territories and countries in America, including Argentina, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, the United States, Guadeloupe, French Guyana , Cayman Islands, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin and Trinidad and Tobago.

They are joined by the Dominican Republic, which notified a case last Saturday, and Paraguay, where the Government reported this Monday of the first infections with the omicron variant: three travelers from Cancun (Mexico).

The continent remains on alert for this variant, which has already been detected in more than 110 countries around the world and continues to spread exponentially, doubling the cases in the communities where it is transmitted in a matter of two or three days, according to the WHO.

World authorities, however, have tried to lower the alarm by stressing that data from outbreaks in South Africa, the United Kingdom and Denmark suggest a lower risk of hospitalization in patients who contract the omicron variant compared to the delta.

Impacted tourism sector

Despite this, the uncertainty due to the impact of omicron continues and has led to an increase in restrictions, especially in the air sector, where in this final stretch of the year thousands of cancellations and rescheduling of flights were registered, especially in China and the United States. United.

This Monday, in fact, the major airlines in the United States canceled more than a thousand routes for the fourth day in a row due to the advance of the variant, according to Flight Aware, a company that publishes information on flights in real time.

Last Sunday, 1,517 aircraft were grounded, on Saturday another 1,000 aircraft bound for or departing the United States did not take off, and on Friday Christmas Eve, 700 aircraft remained in the hangars, according to Flight Aware.

According to United airline, the increase in omicron infections in the United States is having a “direct impact” on the members of its crews and the rest of the company personnel, who are forced to rest and quarantine home to recover from the illness.

The problems have also affected cruise ships: Carnival Freedom returned to Miami on Sunday after an undetermined group of passengers tested positive for COVID-19, failing to dock on the Caribbean islands of Bonaire and Aruba.

Last Thursday, Royal Caribbean reported that a total of 55 passengers and crew members of the Odyssey of the Seas, which sailed the previous Saturday from a port in Fort Lauderdale, tested positive for the disease during an eight-day cruise.

And the authorities of the Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory in the Caribbean Sea, announced that they will maintain the ban on cruises, reversing the decision that this week they would allow the stopover of a first ship.

New measures

Given the advance of the virus, several countries are reconsidering some of their preventive measures.

In the case of the United States, the main epidemiologist of the Government, Anthony Fauci, said this Monday that the Joe Biden Administration is evaluating “seriously” reducing the isolation time for those who have been infected with the virus and considered that it would be “reasonable evaluate ”the imposition of new vaccination requirements on domestic flights.

Ómicron is the dominant one in the United States, where more than 70% of infections correspond to this variant, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Currently, the isolation period is ten days, although last Thursday, the CDC established an exception for health personnel, for which they determined a five-day quarantine.

For its part, the Dominican Republic, which last Saturday confirmed the first case of the omicron variant in its territory, announced this Monday that it will apply a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, in a new effort to control the pandemic.

And in Chile, where about 250 cases of omicron have been confirmed, the Government warned that more than 1.6 million people who have not yet received their booster dose against COVID-19 will suffer mobility restrictions if they do not inject it before. January 1.