Coronavirus: Omicron still driving Covid-19 surges and worries in US, elsewhere
- New Covid-19 cases in the US averaged around 39,300 a day as of Tuesday – far lower than last winter but a vast undercount due to reduced testing and reporting
- Experts see the seeds of a widespread US wave and point to what’s happening in Japan, South Korea and Norway where variants have started a new wave
A year after Omicron began its assault on humanity, the ever-morphing coronavirus mutant drove Covid-19 case counts higher in many states in America just as people gathered for Thanksgiving. It was a prelude to a wave that experts expect to soon wash over the US.
Emergency doctor Nicholas Vasquez of Phoenix, Arizona said his hospital admitted a growing number of chronically ill people and nursing home residents with severe Covid-19 this month.
“It’s been quite a while since we needed to have Covid wards,” he said. “It’s making a clear comeback.”
Nationally, new coronavirus cases averaged around 39,300 a day as of Tuesday – far lower than last winter but a vast undercount because of reduced testing and reporting. About 28,000 people with Covid-19 were hospitalised daily and about 340 died.
Cases and deaths were up from two weeks earlier. Yet a fifth of the US population hasn’t been vaccinated, most Americans haven’t got the latest boosters and many have stopped wearing masks.
Meanwhile, the virus keeps finding ways to avoid defeat.