Washington / Brussels – It has emerged that the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus is spreading rapidly worldwide. The variant, found in South Africa last month, has spread across 108 countries. Besides, the number of patients has increased nearly up to 1.5 million. Record numbers of patients are being registered in many countries of Africa, including the US and Europe, with the spread increasing in Asian countries and Australia. A few days ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the number of patients with the Omicron variant increased by more than 100% every three days.   

Moreover, Omicron has emerged as a dominant variant in many parts of the United States. There has been a staggering 614% increase in Coronavirus cases in the US capital of Washington. The number of patients in the US has increased by 45% compared to last week. Besides, on Friday, over 2,61,000 patients were registered in the country. The death toll due to Covid has risen by 50% within just 24 hours, with 3,354 deaths on Friday. The study group IHME in the US has warned that 140 million new patients could be found in the US in the next two months. It has been warned that the number of Coronavirus patients found daily in the United States is estimated to reach 2.8 million.  

It has surfaced that the Covid crisis is growing alarmingly in Europe alongside the United States. More than a million patients were found in the UK in the last three days. On Friday, the number of Covid patients reached 1,22,000, which has proved to be a new record during this pandemic. More than 94,000 patients had been recorded in France in 24 hours on Friday. More than 3 million Covid patients were found in European countries in the week that ended on Thursday; its number accounted for as much as 58% of the world’s Covid patients. Coronavirus has killed more than 50,000 people worldwide in the past week, and it has surfaced that 54% of them were from European countries.   

The number of Covid patients has started to rise again in Africa, Asia, and Australia, followed by the United States and Europe. The number of patients in Ethiopia has increased sevenfold in just one week, while the number of patients in Kenya has increased by 483%. In addition, patients from Mozambique, Zambia and Botswana have reported an increase of 150 to 350%. According to the information provided by the local authorities, Omicron has spread to a total of 22 countries in Africa. Omicron patients have been found in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia of Southeast Asia. The number of patients has also been reported to increase in Japan and South Korea. In Australia, on Saturday, around 10,000 new patients were reported.  

The biggest blow of the growing contagion has hit international airspace. In the last 48 hours, various airlines across the world have cancelled more than as many as 4,000 flights. As a result, it has emerged that millions of passengers are stranded at many airports across the globe. It is said that this decision was taken at the backdrop of Christmas, which has left the passengers in a dilemma.  

हिंदी  मराठी 

Click below to express your thoughts and views on this news:

	https://twitter.com/WW3Info
	https://www.facebook.com/WW3Info