The World Health Organization released a report on the 15th that there were slightly more than 16 million new cases of COVID-19 worldwide last week, a 19% decrease from the previous week, and another 75,000 people died of the disease. WHO officials noted that Omicron caused milder symptoms compared with previous variants of COVID-19 and that in countries with high vaccination rates, hospitalizations and deaths did not increase significantly, even as local Omicron outbreaks had spread.
In the recent period, many countries have gradually eased epidemic restrictions.
The number of newly diagnosed cases and hospitalizations in the United States has begun to cool down in a single day. In addition to the red states that are governed by the Republican Party, which have loosened epidemic prevention restrictions earlier, the blue states of the traditional Democratic Party, which are relatively cautious in epidemic prevention, have also withdrawn the mask mandate; the White House’s top epidemic prevention expert Anthony S. Fauci said that the United States is already on the road to normalcy.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on the 9th that if the infection rate of COVID-19 remains stable, England will announce that at the end of this month, the rules that must be self-isolated after diagnosis are lifted.
Singapore will relax the quarantine regulations for inbound passengers. Passengers entering from low-risk countries and regions do not need to undergo PCR nucleic acid testing after arrival, but only need to go to the testing center for quick screening. It will also continue to expand the number of countries that are exempt from isolation for vaccinated people.
German Chancellor Schotz said after talks with local leaders recently that the domestic infection rate has continued to decline, indicating that the peak of the COVID-19 variant Omicron infection has passed, and Germany will begin to lift most epidemic prevention restrictions.
