The total number of COVID-19 cases registered worldwide on Friday passed 300 million, with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2’s rapid spread setting new infection records in dozens of countries over the past week.
Thirty-four countries have in the past seven days recorded their highest number of weekly cases since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, including 18 nations in Europe and seven in Africa, according to an Agence France-Presse count based on official figures.
While far more contagious than previous variants, Omicron appears to cause less severe illness than its predecessors.
Photo: AFP
Even as it spurred the world to a record 13.5 million cases in the past week alone — 64 percent higher than the previous seven days — the global average of deaths dropped 3 percent.
France’s public health authority on Friday said that the risk of hospitalization was about 70 percent lower for Omicron, citing data from Canada, Israel, the UK and the US.
However with a global average of 2 million new cases being detected daily, experts have said that that the sheer numbers threaten to overwhelm health systems.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that Omicron should not be categorized as mild, as it “is hospitalizing people and it is killing people.”
“In fact, the tsunami of cases is so huge and quick, that it is overwhelming health systems around the world,” he said.
Omicron’s dizzying spread since being detected six weeks ago has prompted many nations to push harder for more vaccinations and some to clamp down with restrictions.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that access to the country’s bars and restaurants would be limited to those who are fully vaccinated or have recovered from the virus and can also provide a negative test result.
However, people who have received a booster shot would be exempted from the test requirement.
In Austria, Chancellor Karl Nehammer tested positive for COVID-19.
“No cause for worry, I’m fine,” he said. “I continue to plead: Get vaccinated.”
As cases skyrocket in the US — which also broke its daily caseload record this week — US President Joe Biden said that COVID-19 “as we are dealing with it now is not here to stay ... but having COVID in the environment — here and in the world — is probably here to stay.”
In India, Omicron-led rising case numbers have brought fears of a return to the country’s darkest pandemic days last year, when thousands were dying of COVID-19 every day.
Gautam Menon, a professor of physics and biology at India’s Ashoka University who has worked on COVID-19 infection modeling, said that “this could potentially stress out healthcare systems to levels comparable to or worse than the second wave.”
However, Kolkata’s High Court rejected a bid to cancel a major Hindu festival, despite fears the virus could spread rapidly among the 500,000 expected attendees.
“People from all states in the country will attend the religious festival and take a holy dip,” environmentalist Subhash Dutta said. “They may carry variant viruses and this religious festival may end up being the biggest superspreader in the coming days.”
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS