The United States recorded over 6 lakh new cases in the last 24 hours. The United Kingdom (UK) and France recorded over 2 lakh new Covid cases.
Post-Christmas holidays, the United States and many western powers are seeing a record rise in new Covid cases.
The United States recorded over 6 lakh new Covid cases in the last 24 hours. Italy reported 126,888 new cases, the highest since the pandemic began. Spain is also witnessing a record rise in cases. Spain reported 161,688 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, by far the highest since the pandemic began.
New Covid cases in the US have averaged over three lakhs in the last week. In the run-up to the presidential elections last year, US President Joe Biden promised he wouldn't crush the economy but crush the virus. Now when the US is witnessing record numbers of new Covid cases, President Biden said there is no federal solution to the Covid problem, and states must deal with it on their own. The US Vice-President Kamala Harris promised that once elected, her administration would check the Covid virus, but she is nowhere to be seen when the country is witnessing the maximum everyday numbers.
French Health Minister Olivier Véran warned France could see more than 3 lakh new cases every day by the start of January. Requesting people to take precautions against the virus, the French Hospital Federation said that coming days would see the most difficult situation as there will be no respite in new Covid cases, and it will put more burden on the already exhausted medical infrastructure.
According to the WHO's weekly Covid update published on Tuesday (December 28), the number of new covid infections grew by 57% in Europe in the week before December 26 and by 30% in the Americas region. It has been warned that the surge in cases will push the healthcare systems towards the brink of collapse.
With the massive rise in new cases, the governments in the West have declined to impose Covid restrictions. On the contrary, the Biden administration reduced the mandatory quarantine period from 10-days to 5-days.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson refused to bring in new restrictions to check the spread of the virus. Currently, more than 10,000 patients are in various hospitals in the UK, the highest since March this year.
