The continued rise in daily coronavirus cases (Covid-19) in the United States and the rapid decline in Britain after reaching the peak has led the two countries to similar per capita caseload. According to Our World in Data, the US has been reporting a seven-day rolling average of 2,240 Covid cases while the average daily infections in the United Kingdom currently stands at 22,90.
The daily Covid cases in Britain peaked around January 5 as the country’s healthcare system was under tremendous pressure due to record-high hospitalisation. On the other hand, the United States is still to reach the peak of its Omicron-driven Covid wave. The US is currently seeing an average of 750,000 cases a day and more than 1,600 daily deaths. The current virus-related hospital admissions are over 150,000, up by nearly 20 per cent from the previous week, according to The Washington Post figures.
“Omicron, with its extraordinary, unprecedented degree of efficiency of transmissibility, will ultimately find just about everybody,” Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci predicted Tuesday.
With more than 15 million Covid cases reported last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the Omicron variant is dangerous, especially so for those who have not been vaccinated.
“While Omicron causes less severe disease than Delta, it remains a dangerous virus — particularly for those who are unvaccinated,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference.
“We mustn’t allow this virus a free ride or wave the white flag, especially when so many people around the world remain unvaccinated.”
India, meanwhile, reported 247,417 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative tally to 36,317,927, according to the Union health ministry’s data as per Thursday morning.
