AllTop Viral!

After a hospital at Rhode Island asked two COVID positive, but asymptomatic, employees to come to work, the hospital suffered an outbreak. The hospital, however, denies that the outbreak is related to the employees. The omicron surge is slowing services all over the country, from ambulance and fire services to waste disposal to airport security.

COVID cases have spiked 948% in Florida, while 7-day hospitalizations have increased by 40% (between Christmas and New Years alone). The omicron vaccine is ripping through the population at an alarming rate, which has led to a spike in children being sent to the hospital.

The United States has clocked nearly half a million COVID cases, a high for any country at any time during the pandemic. Within the last week, 1 in 50 Manhattan residents have been infected with COVID, a sign of just how infectious the new variant is. Meanwhile, France is reporting record high COVID cases as omicron sweeps through Europe.

So far, omicron has been detected in 89 countries, and cases are doubling every 1.5-3 days in places experiencing community transmission. According to a new study, the omicron variant is no safer than the delta variant, and it is five times more likely to reinfect people who have already had COVID.

The Omicron variant grows 70x faster than the delta variant, which may account for its fast spread. In the final analysis of its COVID pill, Pfizer says the drug is highly effective, even against Omicron, and it should be released before the end of the year.

Before Omicron, Pfizer reported a 90% reduction in hospitalizations and death in high-risk COVID patients. In terms of the vaccine, Pfizer’s CEO announced that the government ordered enough COVID vaccine doses for every child aged 5 to 11 in the country. That’s about to be put to the test––kids have started getting the COVID vaccine.

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