Page 6 - aruba-today-20220113

A6 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 13 January 2022
Omicron may be headed for a rapid drop in Britain, US

By MARIA CHENG and South Africa will happen
CARLA K. JOHNSON Asso- here," said Dr. Paul Hunter,
ciated Press a professor of medicine at
Scientists are seeing signals Britain's University of East
that COVID-19's alarming Anglia.
omicron wave may have Dr. David Heymann, who
peaked in Britain and is previously led the World
about to do the same in Health Organization's infec-
the U.S., at which point cas- tious diseases department,
es may start dropping off said Britain was "the closest
dramatically. to any country of being out
The reason: The variant has of the pandemic," adding
proved so wildly conta- that COVID-19 was inch-
gious that it may already ing towards becoming en-
be running out of people to demic.
infect, just a month and a Differences between Britain
half after it was first detect- and South Africa, including
ed in South Africa. Britain's older population
"It's going to come down and the tendency of its
as fast as it went up," said people to spend more time
Ali Mokdad, a professor of indoors in the winter, could
health metrics sciences at Associated Press mean a bumpier outbreak
the University of Washing- for the country and other
ton in Seattle. within the week. model projects that the ernment data. nations like it.
At the same time, experts On Tuesday, Janet Wood- number of daily reported Kevin McConway, a retired On the other hand, Brit-
warn that much is still un- cock, the acting head of cases in the U.S. will crest at professor of applied statis- ish authorities' decision to
certain about how the next the Food and Drug Ad- 1.2 million by Jan. 19 and tics at Britain's Open Uni- adopt minimal restrictions
phase of the pandemic ministration, told Congress will then fall sharply "simply versity, said that while CO- against omicron could en-
might unfold. The plateau- that the highly transmis- because everybody who VID-19 cases are still rising able the virus to rip through
ing or ebbing in the two sible strain will infect "most could be infected will be in places such as southwest the population and run its
countries is not happening people" and that the focus infected," according to England and the West Mid- course much faster than it
everywhere at the same should turn to ensuring criti- Mokdad. lands, the outbreak may might in Western European
time or at the same pace. cal services can continue In fact, he said, by the uni- have peaked in London. countries that have im-
And weeks or months of uninterrupted. versity's complex calcula- The figures have raised posed tougher COVID-19
misery still lie ahead for pa- "I think it's hard to process tions, the true number of hopes that the two coun- controls, such as France,
tients and overwhelmed what's actually happen- new daily infections in the tries are about to undergo Spain and Italy.
hospitals even if the drop- ing right now, which is: U.S. an estimate that in- something similar to what Shabir Mahdi, dean of
off comes to pass. Most people are going to cludes people who were happened in South Africa, health sciences at South
"There are still a lot of peo- get COVID, all right?," she never tested has already where in the span of about Africa's University of Wit-
ple who will get infected as said. "What we need to peaked, hitting 6 million a month the wave crested watersrand, said European
we descend the slope on do is make sure the hospi- on Jan. 6. In Britain, mean- at record highs and then countries that impose lock-
the backside," said Lauren tals can still function trans- while, new COVID-19 cases fell significantly. downs won't necessarily
Ancel Meyers, director of portation, other essential dropped to about 140,000 "We are seeing a definite come through the omicron
the University of Texas CO- services are not disrupted a day in the last week, after falling-off of cases in the wave with fewer infec-
VID-19 Modeling Consor- while this happens." skyrocketing to more than U.K., but I'd like to see them tions; the cases may just be
tium, which predicts that The University of Washing- 200,000 a day earlier this fall much further before we spread out over a longer
reported cases will peak ton's own highly influential month, according to gov- know if what happened in period of time. q

Anti-vaccine protesters try to storm Bulgarian parliament

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Pro- and vaccine mandates ernment's anti-epidemic sures and especially, first mandatory face masks
testers opposing COVID-19 organized by a nationalist measures. of all, the unconstitutional and green vaccination sta-
restrictions in Bulgaria group that is fiercely op- "The aim of the protest is to green certificate," Kostadin tus passes are met.
clashed Wednesday with posing the Bulgarian gov- remove the restrictive mea- Kostadinov, leader of the Bulgaria, which is facing a
police as they tried to storm Vazrazhdane party, said new surge in infections, is
the Parliament in the capi- ahead of the protest. the least vaccinated coun-
tal of Sofia. The nationalist group, which try in the 27-member Eu-
A heavy police presence holds 13 seats in Parlia- ropean Union, with only a
prevented protesters from ment's 240-seat chamber, third of its population fully
entering the building and has won support among vaccinated against CO-
some were detained. Sev- opponents of coronavirus VID-19.
eral people, including po- restrictions. Speaking from his home,
lice officers, were injured The nearly 1,000 protesters, where he is quarantined for
during the clashes. who waved national flags contacts with an infected
Eventually, the protesters and sang patriotic songs, person, Prime Minister Kiril
were pushed back and po- remained at the square in Petkov called for calm and
lice cordoned off the build- front of the National Assem- invited representatives of
ing. bly, saying they planned the protesters to his office
The violence erupted at a to stay there until their de- on Friday to discuss their
protest rally against mask Associated Press mands for abolishing the demands.q