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Omicron drives new surge in US

A year after Omicron began its assault on humanity, the ever-morphing coronavirus mutant drove Covid-19 case counts higher in many places as Americans gathered this week for Thanksgiving. It was a prelude to a wave that experts expect to soon wash over the United States.

Nationally, new cases averaged around 39,300 a day as of Wednesday – far lower than last winter, but a vast undercount because of reduced testing and reporting. About 28,000 people were hospitalised daily, and about 340 died.

A fifth of the US population hasn’t been vaccinated, most Americans haven’t received the latest boosters, and many have stopped wearing masks.

The Omicron variant arrived in the US just after Thanksgiving last year, and caused the pandemic’s biggest wave of cases. Since then, it has spawned a large extended family of subvariants, which are getting better at evading immunity from vaccines and previous illness.

Some communities are being particularly hard hit. Tracking by the Mayo Clinic shows cases trending up in Florida, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.

WORLD

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2022-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282930979372472

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