Due to the tsunami of omicrons that have swept through many areas of our daily lives, nearly twice as many people were diagnosed as Covid-19 over the past seven days than the previous weekly record for the pandemic.
Infectious and highly mutated variants drove the number of cases to record 10,000,000 in seven days, nearly double the record of 5.7million set in April.
Many people are abandoning testing altogether or using at-home kits that don’t report to authorities. This has resulted in cancelled flights, shut down offices, and strangled supply chains and production facilities.
The holiday season was disrupted by a record number of infections, including those reported from Australia, the U.S. and Italy to France.
This happened a year after vaccines were first introduced and two years after the initial appearance of the virus.
There is a silver lining: Weekly Covid deaths continue to fall, reaching their lowest point in over a year.
The outlook for 2022 will depend on whether death tolls follow cases and increase in the coming weeks or if there is more evidence that the omicron waves will be less severe.
