Commercial airlines around the world canceled some 4,300 flights over the Christmas weekend, as a growing wave of new Covid-19 cases caused by the Ômicron variant created greater uncertainty for holiday travelers.
Airlines globally canceled at least 2,366 flights on Friday (24), which fell on Christmas Eve and is a typically heavy day for air travel, according to a running count on flight-tracking website FlightAware.com. Almost 9,000 flights were delayed.
The site showed that 1,616 Christmas flights were canceled worldwide, along with 365 others that were scheduled for Sunday (26).
Among the first US airlines to report a wave of holiday weekend cancellations are United Airlines and Delta, which eliminated nearly 280 combined flights on Friday alone, citing staff shortages amid rising prices. coronavirus infections.
Contaminations have increased in the United States in recent days due to the Ômicron variant, considered by experts to be highly transmissible. It was first detected in November and now accounts for nearly three-quarters of cases in the US and up to 90% in some areas, such as the East Coast.
The average number of new coronavirus cases in the US rose 45% to 179,000 a day last week, according to a Reuters count.
New York reported more than 44,000 new confirmed infections on Friday alone, breaking the state’s daily record. At least ten other states have established new one-day case records on Thursday or Friday.
The rise in hospitalizations has hit healthcare systems especially hard in the Midwestern United States, with intensive care units in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan lining up for the worst, even as they remain under pressure from a previous wave of cases. of Delta variants.
In Britain, many industries and transport networks struggled with staff shortages as sick workers isolated themselves, while hospitals warned of the risk of impacting patient safety.
One in 20 Londoners had Covid-19 last week, a number that could rise to one in ten by early next week, according to data released on Thursday by the Office for National Statistics.
Local government data showed a record 122,186 new infections nationwide on Friday, marking the third day the number of known cases passed the 100,000 mark.
Although recent research suggests that Ômicron causes a milder picture of the disease and a lower rate of hospitalization than previous variants, health officials have kept a cautious note on the outlook.
“There is a glimmer of hope for Christmas, but it’s definitely not yet at the point where we could alleviate this serious threat,” Jenny Harries, head of the UK Health Security Agency, told the BBC.
France hit another record for Covid-19 cases on Friday, with its daily count exceeding 94,000, while hospitalizations for the virus peaked at seven months, prompting the government to call a special meeting for next Monday ( 27), which could trigger new public health restrictions.
Despite the warning, the government of US President Joe Biden will next week lift travel restrictions in eight southern African countries imposed last month over concerns over the Ômicron variant, the White House said.
Reference: CNN Brasil
