Beijing: The COVID-19 pandemic seems to be far from over as China is battling its worst outbreak in two years driven by a surge in the highly transmissible omicron variant. Yesterday, China’s health authorities reported two COVID-19 deaths on Saturday, the first since January 2021. Both the fatalities were reported in Jilin province in elderly patients and were the result of their underlying conditions, Jiao Yahui, an official with the National Health Commission, told a news briefing on Saturday. One of them had not been vaccinated for COVID-19, she stated further.
The majority of new 2,157 community transmissions reported Saturday came from Jilin. The province has imposed a travel ban, with people needing permission from police to travel across borders. Nationwide, China has reported more than 29,000 confirmed cases since the beginning of March. Faced with the worst surge since late 2019, officials have vowed to double down on the zero-tolerance strategy to contain multiple outbreaks across China.
(Representational Picture)
Hongkong Faces Worst Surge of Pandemic
Meanwhile, Hong Kong, which is facing its worst surge of the pandemic, recorded 16,583 new cases Saturday. The city’s total coronavirus infections exceeded 1 million on Friday, and its number of deaths has already surpassed mainland China’s.
Mainland China’s COVID-19 data is counted separately from Hong Kong, a special administrative region.
South Korea’s Omicron Deaths Surge
Health authorities in South Korea have raised concerns over the highly transmissible Omicron variant amid the government’s move to shift away from rigorous social distancing.
The country reported 381,454 new Covid-19 infections, including 63 from overseas, raising the total caseload to 9,038,938, Yonhap news agency reported, citing the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
The outbreak has been significantly bigger than what had been forecast by government health authorities, who maintain that omicron is nearing its peak. Still, South Korea has a much lower rate of COVID-19 deaths in relation to population size than the United States or many European nations, which officials attribute to high vaccinations with more than 68% of the population having received booster shots.
US May Impose Lockdown If Cases Spike
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to US President Joe Biden, has warned that US could face additional lockdown measures if the new BA.2 subvariant increases the rate of infections among Americans
“If in fact, we do see a turnaround and a resurgence, we have to be able to pivot and go back to any degree of mitigation that is commensurate with what the situation is,” Fauci said in an interview with CNN.
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