Countdown to New Year’s uncertainty
Countries are taking a variety of approaches to stem surge
As Omicron spreads ever more gloom around the globe ahead of New Year’s Eve, governments are moving at different speeds to contain the scourge, with some reimposing restrictions immediately and others hesitating to spoil the party again.
In Britain, where the highly contagious variant of the coronavirus has sent caseloads soaring to record highs, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said Monday no further restrictions will be introduced in England before the new year. New daily infections in England are hovering around 100,000, and hospital admissions were up more than 70 per cent on Christmas from a week earlier.
“When we get into the new year, of course, we will see then if we do need to take any further measures, but nothing more until then, at least,” Javid said.
Elsewhere in the United Kingdom, though, nightclubs have been ordered closed and limits on gatherings imposed in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, leaving the country divided in its approach to the crisis.
The Netherlands, meanwhile, has already shut down all non-essential stores, restaurants and bars and extended the school holidays in what largely amounts to a new lockdown. In Belgium, new measures went into effect Monday and over the weekend: Shopping in large groups was banned, and movie theatres and concert halls closed in the middle of the holiday season.
In France, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced a set of restrictions set to kick in next week, after New Year’s. Among them: Big events will be limited to 2,000 people indoors and 5,000 outdoors; eating and drinking will be banned in theatres, at sports venues and on public transportation; and working from home will be mandatory at least three days a week for employees whose jobs make it possible.
Also, a bill will be voted on in France next month to create a vaccine pass that will allow only inoculated people to enter public places, including restaurants, bars and movie theatres.
The measures come after France recorded more than 100,000 COVID-19 infections in a single day for the first time in the pandemic.
In the U.S., the Biden administration has strongly emphasized the importance of vaccinations, boosters and rapid testing, while New York City’s sweeping mandate requiring nearly all businesses, big and small, to bar unvaccinated employees from the workplace took effect Monday. It was announced three weeks ago, soon after Omicron gained a foothold in the U.S.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday cut isolation restrictions for people who have the virus, saying it’s in line with the science of when people are most infectious and could also help industries continue to function as cases surge.
“We want to make sure there is a mechanism by which we can safely continue to keep society functioning while following the science,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky told The Associated Press.
Omicron has forced thousands of flight cancellations and delays around the globe because of staffing shortages linked to the virus, scrambling travellers’ holiday plans. FlightAware, a flight-tracking website, counted more than 2,700 cancellations worldwide by Monday evening in Europe — about 1,100 of them within, into or out of the U.S.
Despite the variant’s extraordinary ability to infect people, early indications are that it might cause milder illness than previous versions. That uncertainty is keeping governments guessing and resulting in widely varying strategies for beating back the surge.
In Greece, authorities announced additional restrictions — also effective after New Year’s — after recording its highest-ever one-day total of new infections, nearly 9,300.