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Oz sees fall in Covid cases, US hospitalisations on record high: Latest global updates
Even as countries continued their fight against the fast-spreading Omicron variant, detected first in South Africa, scientists have said that more worrisome variants after the current one are highly likely.
Global cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) are well past the 320 million mark with nearly 5.6 million succumbing to the disease, while another 266 million recuperating from the ailment so far. The global active caseload currently stands at 54,834,917.
Even as countries continued their fight against the fast-spreading Omicron variant, detected first in South Africa, scientists have said that more worrisome variants after the current one are highly likely.
“The faster omicron spreads, the more opportunities there are for mutation, potentially leading to more variants,” Leonardo Martinez, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Boston University, told the Associated Press on Sunday.
Iran on Saturday became the latest country to report the first three deaths from Omicron. While China’s capital Beijing, reported its first locally transmitted case of the variant on Saturday, just weeks before the Winter Olympics.
Here are the latest updates on Covid-19 from across the World:
> The daily count of Covid-19 cases in Australia has dropped below 100,000 for the first time in five days. As many as 85,824 cases were reported by mid-day. As the Omicron variant continues to wreak havoc, authorities have suggested citizens take the vaccine against Covid-19.
> In the United States, the number of hospitalisations has broken records from last winter’s peak with Omicron surging across the country, a New York Times report said. According to data presented by the US Department of Health and Human Services, the total hospitalisations in the US stood at 142,388 on Sunday. The previous spike was seen on January 14, 2021, with 142,315 infected patients being admitted.
> South Africa, the country where Omicron was discovered last November, has decided to not impose a lockdown or quarantine with medical experts pointing out that restrictions on the economy, livelihoods and other aspects of society have indirect but harmful effects.
> In China’s capital Beijing, the first transmitted infection of Omicron has been detected in the Haidian district. According to news agency Reuters, authorities have sealed the infected person’s residential compound and workplace and collected 2,430 samples for testing from people linked to these two locations.
> Pakistan has registered more than 4,000 Covid-19 cases for the fourth consecutive day, pushing the caseload to over 1.3 million. Saturday’s count of 4,286 cases in Pakistan has been the highest single-day spike since August last year.
(With agency inputs)
