For the first time, according to an AFP count, the threshold of statistically more than one million new corona infections per day has been exceeded worldwide. With more than 7.3 million new infections reported by authorities around the world between December 23 and 29, there were an average of 1.045 million infections per day with the coronavirus. This is the highest value since the pandemic began two years ago.
The number is significantly higher than the previous record, which was reached between April 23 and 29 with an average of 817,000 new infections daily. More than 85 percent of recent infections are concentrated in Europe and North America. The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Wednesday of a “tsunami” of corona cases and a collapse of health systems because of the highly contagious omicron variant of the virus.
Several countries, including Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, the US, France and Italy, recorded new highs in the past 24 hours after the Omicron variant spread like wildfire. In the United States, there were thousands of child hospital admissions in a matter of weeks.
The seven-day average of daily hospital admissions for children and adolescents under the age of 18 between December 21 and 27 rose more than 58 percent to 334 over the past week in the United States, up from about 19 percent for the general population, according to data of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Less than 25 percent of 74 million Americans under the age of 18 are vaccinated, according to the CDC.