The world continues to deal with the overwhelming nature of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bloomberg reports that France has recorded more than 100,000 new coronavirus cases since the pandemic began. On Friday, the nation recorded 94,124 new COVID-19 cases on Friday. One day later, the country endured 104,611 new coronavirus cases. However, France has only recorded 84 COVID-19 related deaths.
France is experiencing an uptick in COVID-19 cases much like the rest of the world. UPI reports that COVID-19 infections have increased by 13% globally within the last week. Fortunately, the number of deaths has decreased by 10% within the last week.
“There is some encouraging data, A. Several new studies have come out here just this week, suggesting that omicron is a lot less severe than the delta variant. The U.K. Health Security Agency put out a report yesterday saying people were 50 to 70% less likely to need to go to the hospital if they contracted omicron versus past variants,” journalist Frank Langfitt told NPR.
While there are encouraging signs, medical professionals are still warning people to be cautiously optimistic. Within the U.S., more than 4,000 flights were canceled over the holiday weekend due to the spread of the virus. Overseas, 95% of hospital beds in the U.K. are reportedly occupied.
“I think there’s a glimmer of Christmas hope in the findings that we published yesterday, but it definitely isn’t yet at the point where we could downgrade that serious threat,” British physician Jenny Harries commented.
