In the United States, the omicron variant has begun to spread faster than health authorities had predicted in the past few weeks. According to the latest detection carried out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), omicron infections made up 73 percent of new positive cases in the week ending December 18, up from 13 percent the previous week.
The speed of diffusion of the variant has largely exceeded the forecasts of experts, who at the end of last week had speculated that it could take several weeks before omicron became dominant in the new positive cases.
A government officer had valued that this could happen within a month, therefore with more extended times than what has now emerged with the new survey.
United States President Joe Biden urged the population to maintain good practices, such as wearing masks, to reduce the risk of contagion, adding that: “If you are an adult who has chosen not to get vaccinated, you have a winter ahead of you. extremely difficult for your family and your community. “
1. We know that vaccines are working. If you are boosted with Pfizer or Moderna, you have a high degree of protection against severe illness with Omicron. If you’re an adult choosing to be unvaccinated, you will face an extremely difficult winter for your family and community.
President Biden (@POTUS) December 21, 2021
From data collected so far in other areas of the world and from laboratory tests, vaccines appear to be less effective against omicron than other variants, but with a booster dose after completion of the first vaccination course, it appears that good levels of protection are still achieved. severe forms of COVID-19. Research is still ongoing.
The first case of omicron in the United States was detected on December 1 in California, but it is likely that the new variant has been around for some time in some parts of the country. It has since been detected in almost all states, a further sign of its rapid spread.
Some governors and some city administrations have reintroduced the obligation to wear a mask indoors in public places, while in the next few hours Biden should to provide new indications on any limitations to try to slow down the new infections. For now, the US government has, however, been reluctant to introduce new restrictions, as has been the case in parts of Europe where the omicron variant is starting to be dominant in several countries.
At the local level, US city governments have remained cautious about introducing new restrictions for now. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio he said that it is necessary to “move quickly” to avoid a new wave, but has also ruled out for now the possibility of new generalized restrictions for vaccinated and unvaccinated “which would have a terrible impact on the population in the city”. In New York State, there has been a roughly 80 percent increase in cases in the past two weeks.
Since the beginning of December, new positive cases have been growing in the United States with a daily incidence of about 40 infections per 100 thousand people, a figure similar to the Italian one.
On the other hand, hospitalizations and deaths have remained relatively stable, although the possibility of a worsening with the arrival of the Christmas holidays has been reported for days, which will lead many people to travel and increase the opportunities for meeting, almost always indoors, where the risk of contagion is higher.
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