World's daily Covid cases hit new record with Omicron spread

New Delhi: Spreading jitters all over about a surge of the new corona variant Omicron, the daily global Covid-19 cases at 1.44 million has crossed the December 2020 figure of infections, when Turkey had backdated a significant number of positive cases.

The seven-day average of Covid cases was nearly 841,000 on Monday, a 49 per cent rise from November 24 when Omicron was first identified in Africa.

The surge, and more than that the fear of its worsening, have led to the cancellation of over 11,500 international flights across the globe.

The UK has been counted as adding 100,000 new infections a day.

Greek Health Minister Thanos Plevris has also introduced tighter restrictions to contain the spread with the country's daily number of new cases surging to an all-time high in the country.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex and Health Minister Olivier Veran have come up with a series of new measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 during the New Year festivities and urged their countrymen to respect the preventive measures during the celebrations.

Far away in southeast Asia, Thailand's Ministry of Public Health has issued a nationwide level 3 warning after 514 cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 have been detected.

In the US, a winter surge of the new Omicron variant has led to more hospitalisations and deaths across the country, with daily infections reaching a record high since January. The country is averaging more than 176,000 new cases daily, according to the latest data of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Nearly 300,000 new cases were reported on Monday, a new high since January 8 this year. Currently, the US is witnessing about 1,200 new deaths from Covid-19 each day, CDC data showed. Thus the Omicron has variant has taken the place of the previous Delta variant as the most prevalent variant in the country.

Health officials have been warning that the Omicron variant will continue to overwhelm hospitals and healthcare workers.

The Omicron variant has derailed holiday plans for many Americans who are travelling. Over 1,000 flights in the country were cancelled on Monday amid the Omicron surge.

Canada reported 18,230 new Covid-19 cases, elevating the cumulative total to 2,026,249 cases with 30,172 deaths, according to CTV.

The Omicron infection tally has risen to 653 across India. However, of the total cases, 186 have been discharged from hospitals. So far, 21 states have reported Omicron infections. However, as a precaution the Capital Delhi's administration has introduced fresh and tighter restrictions on movement, vehicular traffic and gatherings, especially in view of the upcoming New Year's celebrations

Australia reported its biggest daily COVID-19 total on Monday, along with its first known death from Omicron. In just one month, 108 countries have reported over 151,368 Omicron cases and there have been over 26 deaths.

Meanwhile, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has shortened the isolation time for Americans infected with Covid-19 from 10 to five days. The global coronavirus caseload has topped 281.3 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 5.40 million and vaccinations to over 8.97 billion, according to Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Tuesday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and the death toll stood at 281,368,071 and 5,406,197, respectively, while the total number of vaccine doses administered has increased to 8,972,162,735.

(Based on IANS input)