The global coronavirus cases tally crossed 400 million on Wednesday, thanks to the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The variant has been pushing health care systems in several countries to the brink.
Almost all new cases reported daily are of the Omicron form, which is dominating the surge over the world. According to a Reuters report, even though infections have begun to level off in many countries, more than 2 million cases are still recorded on average every day. According to the seven-day average, deaths, which tend to follow cases, have surged by 70 per cent in the last five weeks.
According to a Reuters report, cases and hospitalizations are dropping down from their peak in January of this year. COVID-related deaths in the country topped 900,000 on Friday.
Last Friday, India's COVID-19 death toll surpassed 500,000, a figure that many health experts believe was attained last year but was obscured by incorrect surveys and unreported deaths. In France, the total confirmed COVID cases since the start of the pandemic passed 20 million on February 4.
The UK, in the meantime, looks to looks to scrapping the isolation on testing positive protocol, gearing up to live with the virus. New York, in the meantime, has scrapped the indoor mask mandate. About 50 per cent of the new infections being reported globally have been reported from European nations. Since the pandemic began the region has reported over 131 million cases. Around 62 per cent of the world's population has received at least one dose of the Covid vaccine
