World Insights: COVID-19 pandemic worsens after holiday season

As of Tuesday, global cases have reached 85,653,549 with over 1.8 million deaths, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University, Xinhua reports.

DIFFERENT HOLIDAYS

The Christmas and New Year holidays, a time of family reunions, travel and shopping, have been overshadowed by a sustained record-breaking COVID-19 surge.

COVID-19 infections in the United States hit a new grim milestone of 20 million on New Year's Day, an increase of 10 million cases in less than two months.

The CBSLA news channel reported that hospitals across the Los Angeles and other counties in Southern California had been stretched to their limits, as the county's seven-day daily positivity rate increased from 18.2 percent on Christmas Day to 21.5 percent on New Year's Day.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Monday that England will enter a national lockdown from midnight, the third of its kind since the pandemic began in the country.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Monday that the government is planning to declare another state of emergency for Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures as COVID-19 cases surge in these areas.

In cities from the Middle East to Latin America and Africa, New Year celebrations have been cancelled or suspended, and stricter lockdown measures re-introduced.

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on Dec. 27, 2020 ordered the cancellation of all New Year celebrations, while tighter lockdown measures were re-introduced last week in South Africa, including a ban on alcohol sales and gatherings as well as the closure of beaches.

NEW COVID-19 STRAINS

On Dec. 20, 2020, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned that a new strain of COVID-19 was «out of control» in Britain.

By December 2020, the new variant had become the «dominant variant» in London, and by the week ending Dec. 9, 2020, it had accounted for 62 percent of cases in London, 59 percent of those in eastern England, and 43 percent in the southeast, according to Patrick Vallance, chief scientific adviser of the British government.

Days later, two cases of another new variant of the virus were also identified in Britain.

«Both are contacts of cases who have travelled from South Africa over the past few weeks,» Hancock said Wednesday.

This new variant is «yet more transmissible» and the development is «highly concerning,» he said.