Omicron is facing a wave of editions, with more and more governments around the world deciding to ease isolation rules for patients and their loved ones to avoid economic paralysis. Omicron’s extreme contagiousness – and its impressive procession of work stoppages and quarantines – place a heavy burden on the company’s organization, even if the acceleration of contamination may not be accompanied, for the time being. , increase in deaths. The first region concerned, Europe – the current epicenter of the pandemic – is facing unprecedented levels of contamination: more than 4.9 million infections have been recorded in the past seven days, or 59% more than the previous week, according to an AFP count. But on Saturday. Overall, over 10 crore cases have been registered there since the virus was detected in December 2019. The wave is stronger across the Atlantic as well. Dr Anthony Fauci, the White House’s senior adviser on the health crisis, stressed on Sunday that the rise in cases in the United States, “almost vertical”, was “unprecedented”, with an average of about 400,000 new infections per day. In a bid to preserve socio-economic life, France – where more than a million cases have been detected in the past seven days – on Sunday announced easing rules for the isolation of infected people and their contacts from Monday, thus Joins the growing list. Countries reducing quarantine times. Fully vaccinated positive people will now have to self-isolate for seven days instead of ten, an isolation that can be removed if they test negative after five days. And with the complete vaccination schedule there will be no further quarantine for the contact cases. The Ministry of Health explained that this change of rules made it possible to ensure “control of pollution while maintaining socio-economic life”. In the United Kingdom, which records daily contamination, Health Minister Sajid Javid indicated on Saturday that the new restrictions would only intervene in England “as a last resort”. Shortly before Christmas, the British government reduced the period of isolation there from ten to seven days for vaccinated people who had contracted the coronavirus. Emphasizing the “enormous health, social and economic cost of imprisonment”, Mr Javid felt it was necessary to give himself the means to “live with the virus” through vaccinations, an arsenal of treatments and mass screening. daily Mail. The minister, however, acknowledged that the healthcare system would “inevitably” be under pressure due to a “sharp increase” in hospitals in the coming weeks. On Friday, the Swiss health authority also decided that cantons can reduce the quarantine of contact cases to seven days from the earlier ten days and call it “people living together or in intimate contact with a person who has tested positive.” can be limited to “living”. Fears of a destabilizing economy had already prompted Spain to find a balance between “public health” and “development economic”, reducing the forty people positive for Covid-19 to seven days from ten days earlier. . According to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. On the same day, Argentina made a similar decision in an effort to reduce the impact on economic activity of a record spike in cases in its region. Portugal decided to take the same measure on Friday. South Africa, believing it to have passed the peak of the Omicron wave, for its part ended the 21-month night curfew on 31 December. “We want to find a balance between people’s lives, their livelihoods and the goal of saving lives,” Minister Mondali Gungubele told the Presidency. But other countries have imposed or are keeping strict health restrictions such as the Netherlands, which reimposed lockdowns a week before Christmas. And thousands of people demonstrated in Amsterdam on Sunday against tough measures to contain the pandemic. Illustrating the impact of the Omicron wave, global air traffic is still facing many disruptions as flights are canceled due to shortage of flight crew, patients with COVID-19 or contact cases in quarantine. On Sunday, the day before the holiday, more than 2,000 flights to the United States had already been canceled at the end of the morning, adding to the inclement weather conditions caused by these disruptions. To limit absenteeism and thus avoid interruptions and shortages, Joe Biden’s administration on Monday decided to reduce the recommended quarantine period for people positive for Covid from ten to five days, provided they are asymptomatic.