Déjà Vu: Global Covid-19 hotspots, travel bans, restrictions; story repeating again

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• Dec 17, 2021 | moderator

New Delhi: After a huge drop in global Covid-19 cases put us on a relatively smooth spot, with many already ditching the Covid protocols, doing away with their masks, hand sanitizers, numbers have yet again spiraled up, suggesting – This infection will stay with us for long now.

UK, Australia, parts of the US have reported a record virus surge. In India, Delhi and Mumbai reported high coronavirus cases on Thursday. This comes at the onset of Omicron in nearly every country, according to the World Health Organization. Karnataka, Delhi and Gujarat together on Thursday reported 10 fresh cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus taking the countryside tall of this strain to 83.

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South Africa reported a record number of new daily Covid-19 infections on Wednesday in a fourth wave believed to be largely caused by the Omicron coronavirus variant.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) reported 26,976 new cases in the past 24 hours, surpassing a peak of 26,485 in early July during a third wave driven by the then-dominant Delta strain. The NICD also reported another 54 Covid-19 related deaths and an additional 620 hospital admissions.

Countries have already reintroduced travel bans. The French government on Thursday banned nonessential travel to and from Britain and tightened testing requirements for travelers, as a record-breaking surge of Omicron cases across the English Channel raised worries that France would soon face a similar Tsunami of new infections.

France is already facing a surge in cases attributed to the Delta variant, pressuring a hospital system that is short-staffed and under strain after nearly two years of battling the virus. Nearly 3,000 Covid-19 patients are in intensive care, the highest level since June, and the authorities expect that number to rise to 4,000 by the end of the year.

Amid a surge in Covid-19 Omicron variant, Israel added UK, Belgium and Denmark to the travel ban list.

Israelis cannot travel to red countries unless they obtain special permission and when they come back they must quarantine for at least one week regardless of their immunization status.