New measures, new reports and highlights: the update of this Sunday, January 2, 2022 on the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic in the world.
The situation in France
Faced with the Omicron surge, simplified isolation rules to avoid paralysis
Faced with the new wave of the Omicron variant which is exploding the number of Covid-19 contaminations, more and more governments around the world are forced to lighten the rules for the isolation of patients and their relatives to avoid economic paralysis .
France, where more than a million cases have been detected over the past seven days, announced the relaxation of the rules for the isolation of infected people and their contacts on Monday, thus joining the growing list of countries reducing the durations of quarantine.
Completely vaccinated positive people will now have to isolate themselves for seven days, instead of ten, regardless of the variant, an isolation that can be lifted after five days in the event of a negative test. And there will be no more quarantine for contact cases with a complete vaccination schedule.
Hospitalizations still on the rise
The number of hospitalizations linked to Covid-19 has increased again in the past 24 hours, with 18,811 patients in total according to figures published on Saturday by Public Health France. However, new admissions fell slightly with 1,102 patients in the last 24 hours, against 1,928 recorded on New Year’s Eve. Critical care services, including resuscitation, take care of 3,560 people (3,543 the day before) with the most serious forms. of the disease, and had 197 new admissions between Friday and Saturday.
In 24 hours, 111 people succumbed to Covid in hospital, bringing the total death toll to 123,851 since the start of the epidemic.
France: mask from 6 years in transport
Wearing a mask will be compulsory in France from 6 years old from Monday in transport and for trips to restaurants, according to a decree published on Saturday in the Official Journal.
“Alert threshold” in Guadeloupe
The number of new cases of Covid-19 has quadrupled in four days in the French island of Guadeloupe, a rate “well above the alert threshold”, the authorities announced. As of December 31, the number of new cases accumulated over four days is 2,191 (against 543 cases over 7 days last week), for 18,300 people tested. The 10-19 year olds and the 20-39 year old represent 65% of these new cases.
The situation in the world
Over 100 million cases in Europe
Current epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic, Europe has passed the milestone of 100 million cases identified since the discovery of the virus in December 2019, or more than a third of the total contamination in the world, according to a count of the AFP shut down at 6:45 p.m. GMT on Saturday.
With more than 4.9 million contaminations recorded in the last seven days, (59% more than the previous week), the region is currently facing unprecedented levels of contamination.
More than 2,600 canceled flights in the United States
Air transport remained very disrupted on Saturday in the United States, unfavorable weather in several regions of the country adding to the disruptions in the global skies due to the outbreak of Covid cases linked to the Omicron variant.
The United States had 2,660 canceled flights since the start of the day, more than half of the 4,617 that have been canceled globally), around 7:30 p.m. (00:30 GMT), according to the FlightAware website.
Learning to “live with” the virus, says London
British Minister of Health Sajid Javid said on Saturday that new restrictions would only come “as a last resort” in England despite a surge of Omicron cases, believing that it was necessary to learn to “live with” the coronavirus .
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