Is It Really A Happy New Year This Time? The UK Has Some Good News!

Covid-19 has crossed all barriers and we are entering yet another year with nothing much new to celebrate. The world had anticipated a happy ending to this year with the vaccine drives and mask mandates followed optimally everywhere. However, the situation is not quite different from last year’s, though the UK PM admits that it is perhaps a bit better than the 2020 scenario and expects it to be even better in the coming days.

Is It Really A Happy New Year This Time? The UK Has Some Good News!

Borris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the UK, has given good news at the end of 2021 as he says that the situation last year around this time was worse than what they are experiencing now. Hence, people should expect a better New Year’s Eve this time. But at the same time, he also added that getting the shots and the boosters is very important to keep the situation better. Also that it is on part of the citizens to follow the rules strictly during the celebrations.

The PM further added that he has the duty of providing vaccination to each and every adult in the UK by next year and for that, an extra eight million vaccines had already been brought to meet the demands of boosters. He even addressed the people of the UK to make New Year resolutions to get vaccinated at the earliest to prevent falling prey to the dangers of the corona. Instead of trying to make diet charts for maintaining weights, it is more important to find a place where one can get their vaccines. 

The UK is recording a significant number of hospitalization cases and though UK scientists opine that the Omicron is a milder strain and that the number of days one needs to be in a hospital bed has reduced to three, they still have to be cautious. During the festive times, the gatherings are unavoidable and health experts are concerned about the high rates of transmission of the new strain. Also, if the virus starts spreading amongst the older generations, will the hospitals see a greater number of patients with Omicron infections? The scientists are still waiting to see as the situation is quite unpredictable. Moreover, many health care providers have been isolated due to infections and the hospitals are running short of nursing staff which can add to the chaos.

In South Africa, meanwhile, the night curfews have been withdrawn after the government had announced that it has crossed its peak in Omicron cases. The curfew had been imposed on the people for the last two years to curb the spread of infections. However, just before entering another year along with Covid, the South African government has taken this decision. The number of people getting together indoors has been limited to 1000, whereas on the outside, it’s 2000. Any place that is too small should not be occupied by more than 50%.

With the surging numbers in the Omicron cases all over, the WHO director-general continues to press people for vaccinations as there is no chance for the corona to go away so soon. They predict that we are here to stay with Omicron as the virus is constantly evolving. So, it’s better to get immunized against the present strain at least to provide some protection to our bodies. We are going through a Covid tsunami where both Delta and Omicron are posing equal danger, with the highly transmissible Omicron cases being a larger threat. The WHO asked the leaders to forget about political biases and to make New Year resolutions of immunizing at least 70% of the population by the middle of 2022. It is time to concentrate more on the present situation which is slowly getting out of control.