New York, Dec 27 (AFP/APP):Global travel chaos that convulsed the Christmas weekend spilled into Monday with major flight cancellations impacting millions returning from holiday break, as Covid-19 cases surge to record levels in Europe and half a dozen US states.
Some 11,000 flights have been scrapped worldwide since Friday, and tens of thousands more delayed, during one of the year’s busiest travel periods — with multiple airlines saying spikes in cases of the Omicron variant have caused staffing shortages.
Effects rippled worldwide, with about 2,500 flights already cancelled Monday and 800 more on Tuesday, according to flight tracker FlightAware.
The highly transmissible Omicron strain has sent cases skyrocketing, once again disrupting lives and a global economy battered by almost two years of the pandemic — with England’s Premier League the latest to announce that a record 103 players and staff had tested positive in the past week.
As several countries revive unpopular lockdowns, France’s President Emmanuel Macron was set to announce new measures to combat the surge after nationwide infections hit record-high figures — in line with Denmark and Iceland which also reported record daily cases.
Governments worldwide are scrambling to boost vaccination — stressing that the overwhelming majority of hospitalizations and deaths are occurring among the unvaccinated.
But in the United States, cases are already on track to reach record highs in January, fueled by large pockets of unvaccinated residents as well as lack of access to quick and easy testing.
President Joe Biden said Monday some US hospitals could be “overrun,” but that the country is generally well prepared to meet the latest surge and Americans needn’t “panic.”
In a virtual meeting hosted by the White House with a couple dozen state governors and top health advisors, Biden stressed that the rapid spread of the Omicron variant would not have the same impact as the initial outbreak of Covid-19 a year ago or the Delta surge this year.
“Omicron is a source of concern, but it should not be a source of panic,” he said.
Biden’s administration has vowed to ramp up the availability of tests in coming weeks — and the president repeated that pledge Monday.
US states including Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, as well as the island territory of Puerto Rico, have reported more coronavirus cases in the past seven days that at any other point in the pandemic, according to data compiled by The New York Times.
“Clearly we’re on a vertical climb right up,” top White House pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci told National Public Radio on Monday, addressing the Times data.
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