CoronavirusCovid News: U.S. Daily Record for Cases Is Broken

The U.S. record for daily cases is broken as an Omicron ‘tidal wave’ grows.

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Across the United States, drivers waited in long lines for Covid-19 testing.CreditCredit...John Moore/Getty Images

The U.S. record for daily coronavirus cases has been broken, as two highly contagious variants — Delta and Omicron — have converged to disrupt holiday travel and gatherings, deplete hospital staffs and plunge the United States into another long winter.

As a third year of the pandemic loomed, the seven-day average of U.S. cases topped 267,000 on Tuesday, according to a New York Times database. The milestone was marked after a year that has whipsawed Americans from a relaxation of rules in the spring to a Delta-driven summer wave to another surge that accelerated with astonishing speed as Omicron emerged after Thanksgiving.

New reported cases by day
Feb. 2020
Sept.
Apr. 2021
Nov.
Jun. 2022
Jan. 2023
200,000
400,000
600,000
800,000 cases
7-day average
19,508

These are days with a reporting anomaly.

Source: State and local health agencies. Daily cases are the number of new cases reported each day. The seven-day average is the average of the most recent seven days of data.

The record came only a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced the number of days that many infected Americans should remain isolated to five days from 10. The C.D.C. changed course as Omicron’s rapid spread has worsened a labor shortage, upending the hospitality, medical and travel industries, among others. The agency did not recommend rapid testing before people left isolation, and experts warned that that omission risked seeding new cases and heaping even more pressure on already overburdened health systems.

The previous U.S. daily cases record was set on Jan. 11, when the seven-day average was 251,232. That was during a catastrophic winter that was far worse than this moment, when over 62 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated. And early evidence, including some hopeful reports from South Africa, suggests that Omicron causes milder symptoms than other variants, with vaccinations and boosters helping prevent serious illness and death.

Covid patients in hospitals and I.C.U.s
Early data may be incomplete.
Feb. 2020
Sept.
Apr. 2021
Nov.
Jun. 2022
Jan. 2023
50,000
100,000
150,000 hospitalized
Hospitalized
In I.C.U.s
0
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The seven-day average is the average of a day and the previous six days of data. Currently hospitalized is the most recent number of patients with Covid-19 reported by hospitals in the state for the four days prior. Dips and spikes could be due to inconsistent reporting by hospitals. Hospitalization numbers early in the pandemic are undercounts due to incomplete reporting by hospitals to the federal government.

Hospitalizations have been rising, averaging more than 71,000 a day, but remain far below peak levels. While deaths have also been increasing, the daily average of 1,243 is a fraction of the record 3,342 reported on Jan. 26.

New reported deaths by day
Feb. 2020
Sept.
Apr. 2021
Nov.
Jun. 2022
Jan. 2023
1,000
2,000
3,000 deaths
7-day average
255

These are days with a reporting anomaly.

Source: State and local health agencies. Daily cases are the number of new cases reported each day. The seven-day average is the average of the most recent seven days of data.

Nevertheless, Omicron has a considerably easier time than Delta infecting vaccinated people. The coming cascade of patients threatens to overwhelm hospitals just as health care workers themselves are increasingly infected.

A sizable number of patients remain infected with the deadlier Delta variant. On Tuesday, the C.D.C. reported that Omicron cases made up a significantly lower percentage of the overall U.S. caseload than was expected, at roughly 59 percent. And for the week ending Dec. 18, the agency revised down its estimate of 73 percent to about 23 percent, meaning Delta remained dominant until last week.

Omicron is undoubtedly becoming the dominant variant, and that could be good news: A new laboratory study carried out by South African scientists showed that people who had recovered from an infection with the variant might be able to fend off later infections from Delta.

Records are also being broken in Europe, but so far, the leaders of Britain, France, Spain and some other countries have resisted imposing harsh new restrictions amid calls from some who argue that it is time to accept that the virus is endemic and that countries should move away from lockdowns. These nations, confronted with Covid fatigue, are betting for now that high vaccine and booster coverage, along with earlier restrictions still in place, will be enough to keep the coronavirus manageable.

The United States has also taken a similar path, as President Biden has repeatedly said that the era of lockdowns is over and promised to increase testing, double down on vaccination campaigns and prop up hospitals. But public health experts have warned that the measures will not be sufficient to prevent soaring infections and hospitalizations over the next few weeks. And demand for tests has exploded while manufacturers are scrambling to increase production and distribution.

Testing is central to New York City’s plan to keep the largest U.S. school district open in the new year. The city announced on Tuesday that it would eliminate its policy of quarantining entire classrooms exposed to the coronavirus, and would instead use a ramped-up testing program to allow students who test negative and do not have symptoms to remain in school.

Omicron is hitting the Mid-Atlantic States especially hard. Washington, Maryland and Virginia all broke records on Monday for daily case counts.

“D.C. is a marker for what we’re likely to see in much of the rest of the country,” said Neil J. Sehgal, an assistant professor of health policy at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health. “A tidal wave in Omicron cases is likely to flood much of the country in the next month.”

A correction was made on 
Dec. 29, 2021

An earlier version of this article misstated the week that Omicron became the dominant variant in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Omicron surpassed Delta last week, not this week. 

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The Washington, D.C., region is an epicenter of Omicron in the U.S.

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Howard University is among colleges in Washington that are pushing back the start of classes or going remote for the first month of the spring semester in light of the city’s Covid surge.Credit...Jada Thomas for The New York Times

Coronavirus positivity rates have surged in the Washington, D.C., region, urged on by the Omicron variant, which has steadily gained dominance in the United States throughout the holiday season.

Washington, Maryland and Virginia all broke records on Monday in reporting their highest case counts of the pandemic. Washington reported almost 1,000 percent more new cases over the past two weeks and more than 9,000 new cases since Dec. 24. Maryland’s seven-day average for daily new cases stands at more than double the previous high recorded almost a year ago, in January.

New reported cases by day
Apr. 2020
Oct.
Apr. 2021
Oct.
Apr. 2022
Oct.
5,000
10,000 cases
7-day average
294
Source: State and local health agencies. Daily cases are the number of new cases reported each day. The seven-day average is the average of the most recent seven days of data.

“The road to get through the next three or four weeks is going to be very rough,” said Earl Stoddard, the assistant chief administrative officer for Montgomery County, Md., which borders Washington. “There are going to be an absolute ton more cases. The hope is that we’re not going to see those necessarily reflected in hospitalizations that will lead to severe complications and or death.”

Virginia reported more than 18,000 new cases over the Christmas weekend, with Fairfax and Arlington counties showing that positive cases had quadrupled over the past two weeks. None of the positive test counts reported in the region included at-home tests, meaning that the number of infected individuals was likely even higher.

New reported cases by day
Apr. 2020
Oct.
Apr. 2021
Oct.
Apr. 2022
Oct.
5,000
10,000
15,000 cases
7-day average
389
Source: State and local health agencies. Daily cases are the number of new cases reported each day. The seven-day average is the average of the most recent seven days of data.

Neil J. Sehgal, a professor of health policy at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health, said that despite high vaccination rates in the region, the Omicron variant was likely tearing through the population, which includes a large number of adults 20 to 49 who socialize and travel during the holiday season.

“We’re seeing a bit of a holiday party phenomenon, I think,” Mr. Sehgal said. “People aged 20 to 49 are more transmission efficient — they’re more likely to infect people once they have been infected themselves.”

Hospitalizations are ticking up, with more than 1,500 people having been hospitalized with Covid-19 in Maryland as of Dec. 23. While deaths have remained at about the same level over the past two weeks in most of the region, the number often lags behind the number of positive case rates by two to three weeks. And Maryland is juggling other issues, including a hack on Dec. 4 that has prevented the state from reporting county-level data on Covid-19 cases and shortages of emergency medical workers and hospital staff as they test positive.

“We’ve got beds here, but we don’t have the nurses to staff those beds,” said Marc Elrich, Montgomery County’s executive. “You feel like the circle is closing in around you after a while.”

The region is also struggling to keep up with demands for testing. In Northern Virginia, pharmacies that sell at-home Covid tests and libraries that had been handing out free kits have put up signs at their entrances telling people they have run out. Local news reported mass confusion among Maryland residents about testing locations and lines of hundreds of cars in the days after Christmas.

The surge, which is expected to continue into the new year, has already upended a return to school for college students. George Washington University canceled in-person classes until late January and Howard University has pushed back the start of its spring semester. Mr. Stoddard said that public schools in Montgomery County were keen on ramping up testing in order to prevent further disruption to students.

A correction was made on 
Dec. 29, 2021

An earlier version of this report misstated the timing of George Washington University’s cancellation of in-person classes. They are canceled until late January, not for all of January. 

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The C.D.C. significantly lowers its estimate of Omicron’s prevalence nationwide.

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A drive-thru testing site in Baldwin Park, Calif., on Monday. The Omicron variant became dominant in the United States last week, not the week before, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Credit...Bing Guan/Reuters

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that the Omicron variant now accounts for roughly 59 percent of all Covid cases in the United States, a significant decrease from the agency’s previous estimate. The update shows how hard it is to track the fast-spreading variant in real time and how poorly the agency has communicated its uncertainty, experts said.

Last week, the C.D.C. said that Omicron accounted for approximately 73 percent of variants circulating in the United States in the week ending Dec. 18. But in its revision, the agency said the variant accounted for about 23 percent of cases that week.

In other words, Delta, which has dominated U.S. infections since summer, still reigned in the United States that week. That could mean that a significant number of current Covid hospitalizations were driven by infections from Delta, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, suggested on Twitter. Hospitalizations typically lag several weeks behind initial infections.

Experts said they were not surprised by the revisions, given that the C.D.C.’s estimates are rough guesses, with a wide range of possible values known as “confidence intervals.” Cases of Omicron can only be confirmed by genetic sequencing, which is performed on just a portion of samples across the country.

And Omicron is still spreading extremely fast.

Still, they said the C.D.C. did a poor job communicating the uncertainty of its estimates. The agency has had a series of missteps during the pandemic, including sending out botched tests early on and shifting guidance on masking. On Monday, when it halved the recommended isolation period to five days for those who test positive but show no symptoms, critics objected that there was no requirement to test before returning to work.

Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as the U.S. surgeon general under former President Donald J. Trump, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that while he respected the C.D.C., he disagreed with its decision on isolation periods.

He also criticized the new guidance’s lack of a test-out option or recommendation for higher-quality masks.

David O’Connor, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said of the Omicron estimate, “The 73 percent got a lot more attention than the confidence intervals, and I think this is one example among many where scientists are trying to project an air of confidence about what’s going to happen.”

Dr. O’Connor said he initially thought the initial estimate “seemed high.” The agency came up with the estimate based on a “relatively small number of sequences,” he added.

“It’s like playing Name That Tune, and trying to say, based on just the first note, if the song is ’Ice Ice Baby’ by Vanilla Ice, or ‘Under Pressure,’” Dr. O’Connor said. “Without more data, it can be really hard to know which one it’s going to be.”

The new estimate of 59 percent is also a rough calculation, experts said, and will most likely be revised in future weeks.

“I just want people to be very aware that that is an estimate, that’s not actually from sequence-confirmed cases,” said Nathan Grubaugh, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health. “With Omicron in particular, it’s been very difficult to have any sort of projections, because things are changing just so so rapidly.”

Dr. Grubaugh, who is tracking probable Omicron samples in Connecticut, said that the variant makes up more than 80 percent of cases there, though he also notes that the country is heterogenous and the variant likely has a different prevalence in different places.

“I don’t know how the C.D.C. built their algorithm, but human beings made these programs, and humans are fallible,” said Massimo Caputi, a molecular virologist at the Florida Atlantic University School of Medicine. “At the end of the day you can predict as much as you want but you need to look at the numbers you have in your hand.”

Dr. O’Connor, who is tracking Omicron in Wisconsin, said the variant made up half of cases on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus in just three days. “If I was making a betting prediction, it wasn’t so much that the number 73 percent was wrong, but the timing to get there was wrong,” he said.

These predictions will likely become more accurate over time as more data on Omicron is collected.

More precise numbers will be needed to smartly distribute Covid treatments. One of the great challenges of Omicron is the variant’s ability to thwart two of the three monoclonal antibody treatments, which can prevent serious illness in Covid-19 patients. As such, some hospitals have begun scaling back these treatments; administrators at NewYork-Presbyterian, N.Y.U. Langone and Mount Sinai all said they would stop giving patients the two treatments that are ineffective against Omicron. But the drugs could still help people infected with Delta.

“If you still have those Delta cases, discontinuing monoclonals means all those people who would have benefited from them won’t be receiving them at all,” Dr. O’Connor said.

Dr. O’Connor said scientists and health care providers need to do a better job of communicating the uncertainty in the predications they share with the public. “Having the humility to acknowledge that there’s a lot that no one knows and is unknowable right now is going to be really important.”

Will shortened isolation periods spread the virus?

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Travelers make their way through Miami International Airport on Dec. 28. More than 2,000 flights were canceled over the weekend as airlines dealt with the surge in Covid cases from the Omicron variant.Credit...Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The decision by federal health officials to shorten isolation periods for Americans infected with the coronavirus drew both tempered support and intense opposition from scientists on Tuesday.

One of the main points of contention was the absence of a testing requirement and fears that the omission could hasten the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant.

The new guidance, coming amid a crush of new infections that has starved many hospitals of workers, seemed to some scientists like a necessary step to shore up work forces in essential industries. And encouraging people to leave isolation early after testing negative could spare them the hardships of prolonged periods at home.

But letting hundreds of thousands of infected people forgo those tests — even if, crucially, their symptoms were not entirely gone — risks seeding new cases and heaping even more pressure on already overburdened health systems, experts said in interviews on Tuesday.

“To me, this feels honestly more about economics than about the science,” said Yonatan Grad, an associate professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who has tracked coronavirus infections in the National Basketball Association.

Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview on Tuesday that the new guidance had been necessitated by the volume of people about to be infected.

The C.D.C.’s recommendations cut isolation periods for infected people from 10 days to five. The agency did not recommend rapid testing before people left isolation, but asked infected people to wear a mask around others for five days.

But some scientists maintain that rapid tests are the most convenient indication of whether or not someone remains contagious. Regulatory delays, manufacturing problems and shortfalls in government support have left rapid tests in extremely short supply as the Omicron variant has surged, pushing caseloads to near record levels in the United States.

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New York City’s schools will reopen with ramped-up testing to limit classroom closures.

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N.Y.C. Unveils New Testing Program To Keep Children in School

Instead of quarantining entire classrooms exposed to Covid-19, New York City will allow asymptomatic students who test negative for the coronavirus to stay in school.

“We take all the information we’ve learned, all the experience we’ve had, listen to the data and the science, listen to the health care leaders, and now we’ve come up with a new approach. And that approach is called ‘Stay Safe and Stay Open.’ This is how we are going to look at schools from this point on. Keep them safe and keep them open.” “What we know from our data over the school year is that schools remain among the safest settings in our communities. And even if the rates were to become somewhat higher due to Omicron becoming dominant, we estimate that in schools, about 98 percent of close contacts do not end up developing Covid-19. As the mayor has said, we will double our surveillance testing overall and include vaccinated individuals in that testing. We will distribute rapid test kits at a mass scale, both around cases identified in classrooms, as well as to staff. And we will encourage wide testing of students and staff ahead of the first day of school through our community sites.”

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Instead of quarantining entire classrooms exposed to Covid-19, New York City will allow asymptomatic students who test negative for the coronavirus to stay in school.CreditCredit...Dieu-Nalio Chéry for The New York Times

New York City, home to the nation’s largest school system, will eliminate its current policy of quarantining entire classrooms exposed to Covid, and will instead use a ramped-up testing program to allow students who test negative for the coronavirus and do not have symptoms to remain in school.

The new policy, which Mayor Bill de Blasio referred to as “Stay Safe and Stay Open” during his announcement on Tuesday, will take effect on Jan. 3, when the nearly one million students who attend the city’s public schools are scheduled to return from holiday break. More than 27,000 new virus cases were reported in New York City on Tuesday, and more than 2,300 people were hospitalized with Covid-19, according to the state’s most recent count.

Mr. de Blasio, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor-elect Eric Adams, who takes office on Saturday, appeared together at a news conference to present a united front against school closures, despite an enormous surge in cases driven by the Omicron variant that has only worsened in the days since city schools closed for winter break last week.

“Your children are safer in school, the numbers speak for themselves,” Mr. Adams said.

Instead of delaying the start of in-person school and pivoting to remote learning, the city will double the amount of random surveillance testing it conducts, in hopes of detecting more infections while mitigating disruptions.

Many school districts have sought to limit disruption and prevent outbreaks by increasing testing. That model, known as “test to stay,” was endorsed by the C.D.C. earlier this month. States including Illinois, Kansas, California and Massachusetts have test-to-stay strategies, and the United Kingdom loosened quarantine rules for exposed students earlier this year.

In the Granite School District near Salt Lake City, a significantly smaller school district than New York’s made up of 90 schools and 63,000 students, the test-to-stay program has worked well, according to the district’s spokesman, Ben Horsley, and is now being adopted in Utah statewide.

In New York City, hundreds of classrooms were either entirely closed or partially closed last week because of Covid exposures. The city’s previous policy was to quarantine unvaccinated close contacts of infected students for 10 days. Many elementary school children in particular have not been vaccinated, even though they are eligible, and fewer than half of all city children aged 5 to 17 are fully vaccinated.

City officials are expecting Omicron to continue surging in New York over the next few weeks, which will certainly be felt in classrooms. To avoid frequent closures and disruption, the city will provide students with rapid at-home tests to take if someone in their classroom tests positive.

If the students are not showing symptoms and test negative, they will be allowed to return the next day. They will then be given a second at-home test within five days of their exposure. Students or parents will self-report test results to schools.

Students will also receive rapid tests if their classmates or teachers are displaying symptoms. Those who test positive will have to quarantine for 10 days.

New York still plans to close entire schools when there is evidence of major in-school spread.

Joseph Goldstein and Dana Rubinstein contributed reporting.

Omicron might help defend against Delta, a lab study suggests.

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Sandile Cele, a researcher at the Africa Health Research Institute in Durban, South Africa, studies the Omicron variant.Credit...Jerome Delay/Associated Press

People who have recovered from an infection with the new Omicron coronavirus variant may be able to fend off later infections from the Delta variant, according to a new laboratory study carried out by South African scientists.

If further experiments confirm these findings, they could suggest a less dire future for the pandemic. In the short term, Omicron is expected to create a surge of cases that will put a massive strain on economies and health care systems around the world. But in the longer term, the new research suggests that an Omicron-dominated world might experience fewer hospitalizations and deaths than one in which Delta continues to rage.

“Omicron is likely to push Delta out,” said Alex Sigal, a virologist at the Africa Health Research Institute in Durban, South Africa, who led the new study. “Maybe pushing Delta out is actually a good thing, and we’re looking at something we can live with more easily.”

He posted the new study on the institute’s website on Monday. It has not yet been published in a scientific journal.

Independent scientists said that the results of the South African experiment, though preliminary, were sound. Carl Pearson, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said the findings were consistent with what is now happening in England.

“Omicron arrives and grows rapidly, and the Delta trend switches to declining,” he said.

And Nathan Grubaugh, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health, said he was observing the same pattern in Connecticut. “We are seeing Omicron exponentially rise while Delta cases are falling,” he said. “This suggests to me that Omicron is outcompeting Delta for susceptible individuals, leaving them less susceptible to Delta in the aftermath, and driving down Delta cases.”

When people began getting infected with the coronavirus two years ago, they produced antibodies and immune cells that could provide protection against it. As a result, it was very rare for a person to be reinfected in the months that followed.

But starting in late 2020, new coronavirus variants emerged. Some of them, like Alpha, had mutations enabling them to spread rapidly. Others, like Beta, had adaptations that allowed them to evade antibodies — whether they were produced during a prior infection or in response to a Covid-19 vaccine.

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Many universities, citing the Omicron surge, push start dates back or move to online instruction.

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Syracuse is one of many universities that have delayed the start of classes because of the recent surge in Covid cases.Credit...Carolyn Thompson/Associated Press

As the highly contagious Omicron variant sends U.S. case rates higher, a stream of colleges and universities around the country have announced that classes will be delayed or will begin remotely in January.

For some students, the revised plans are a decidedly unwelcome development following almost two years of online instruction, limited gatherings, testing protocols and uncertainty.

At Syracuse University, David Bruen, the student body president, said he supported the university’s decision to delay its start by one week, to Jan. 24, despite his feelings of disappointment.

“I’m someone who really believes in what’s best for public health,” said Mr. Bruen, 20, a political science major. “But the fact that this keeps going on is just frustrating and stressful and sad.”

The decisions, made after consulting experts who said that transmission of the virus will likely surge after the holiday break, were not universal. Some major colleges, including the University of Michigan and Northeastern University, stood firm, stating that classes would begin as usual, even as the schools imposed a booster requirement. But broadly, fears are rising that campus life in 2022 could be a repeat of 2020.

In some cases, students were advised, it would be best to remain at home for a while, if possible. Others announced new requirements that students receive booster shots and wear KN95 masks.

The University of Miami said late Wednesday that it would start with remote-only classes on Jan. 18 amid surging cases of in South Florida. In-person classes are expected to resume on Jan. 31, an email to students and faculty said.

Howard University in Washington, D.C., tweeted on Monday that it had seen a “concerning increase in percentage and the number of positive cases over the past three weeks,” delaying the start of its semester to Jan. 18.

Also on Monday, Princeton University said it would begin classes as scheduled on Jan. 24, but delayed the return of students by one week to Jan. 14, with students arriving gradually over 10 days. The university also said it would ban travel by students outside the campus vicinity until mid-February.

In Houston, Rice University sent a message to students Sunday announcing the delay of in-person classes until Jan. 24. The university said it was strongly encouraging students not to arrive on campus until the weekend of Jan. 22.

On Dec. 21, New York University posted an announcement that January classes would be held online. So did Columbia. Both schools advised faculty and staff to work remotely.

Binghamton University and the University of Illinois announced one-week delays in the start of classes. Wayne State University in Detroit announced that classes would be held online for at least three weeks and imposed a booster shot requirement.

Ka Yee C. Lee, the University of Chicago provost, announced a one-week delay and then two weeks of remote instruction until Jan. 24. Undergraduates living in residence halls were strongly encouraged to delay their return to campus until at least Jan. 20.

In California, some schools were moving classes online and others were imposing new vaccine requirements. Seven schools in the University of California system, including U.C.L.A., announced that classes would be remote for the first two weeks of the quarter. Other schools said they were either delaying in-person classes for one week or evaluating possible changes.

And the University of Pennsylvania moved classes online for two weeks and delayed campus housing move in.

An early Omicron cluster in the U.S. suggests the variant has a shorter incubation period.

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A computer-generated image of multiple copies of the Omicron variant.Credit...Getty Images

Days before the United States had its first confirmed case of the Omicron variant on Dec. 1 in California, health officials in Nebraska began looking into six probable cases of coronavirus infection in one household, among them a 48-year-old unvaccinated man who had recently returned from a conference in Nigeria.

On Dec. 2, the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory identified the Omicron variant as the cause in all six people, who ranged in age from 11 to 48. A study of the group released on Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that Omicron may have a shorter incubation period than previous variants: about 72 hours.

It may take as little as three days for people to develop symptoms, become contagious and test positive, compared with four to six days with Delta infections and those caused by original coronavirus, the authors observed.

Only one member of the household was fully vaccinated, and all but one member, including the traveler, had experienced confirmed infections in 2020. No household members reported underlying medical conditions.

The study also reported that the family members experienced mild symptoms. The six described their illnesses as similar to, or milder than, those experienced during their first infection.

“It is unknown whether the mild clinical syndromes or differing symptom descriptions are a result of existing immunity or altered clinical features associated with Omicron infection,” the study’s authors wrote.

“The five reinfections, including one after full vaccination, might be explained by waning immunity, the potential for partial immune evasion by Omicron, or both.”

A study in Norway that examined a large cluster of individuals who were infected with the variant at a Christmas party in Oslo also suggested that the incubation period was around three days. It is not yet clear how long people remain infectious with Omicron.

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In Quebec, some health care workers who test positive will continue working.

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Vivien Murphy, 9, received a shot last month at a vaccination clinic in Montreal, the largest city in Quebec.Credit...Christinne Muschi/Reuters

Quebec, which is fighting the highest infection levels in Canada, announced on Tuesday that health care workers in the province who test positive for the coronavirus will continue working under certain circumstances.

All essential workers in the province, including those who work in medicine, will be subject to the new rules, Christian Dubé, Quebec’s minister of health and social services, said in a news briefing. He said that workers who test positive will keep working “according to a list of priority and risk management.” He did not provide details but said more information would be released in the coming days.

During previous waves, Mr. Dubé said, the goal had been to “identify and remove at-risk employees as quickly as possible.” But given the highly contagious nature of the Omicron variant, and so many people being infected and having to be pulled out of work, he said, “we have to do otherwise. We have no choice.”

The average number of new cases per day in Quebec has risen 376 percent in the past two weeks, and the seven-day average of new daily cases in the province is over 8,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That number makes up more than half of Canada’s new cases every day, on average.

New reported cases by day
Feb. 2020
Sept.
Apr. 2021
Nov.
Jun. 2022
Jan. 2023
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000 cases
7-day average
1,234
Source: Data for Canada comes from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Population data from Statistics Canada. The daily average is calculated with data that was reported in the last seven days.

The strain on health care workers around the world has been building since the beginning of the pandemic, and experts have warned that they are nearing a breaking point. In October, the World Health Organization estimated that more than 100,000 health care workers had died of Covid and urged countries to do more to protect them.

In the United States, some states called in the National Guard this month to help run hospitals and nursing homes that have been hit hard by staff shortages and illness among their employees.

‘The Music Man’ is canceling shows after Hugh Jackman announces he has Covid.

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“The Music Man” will resume performances on Sunday, and Jackman will return to the show on Jan. 6.Credit...Cindy Ord/Getty Images

Hugh Jackman, who is starring as Professor Harold Hill in “The Music Man” at the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway, announced on Tuesday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.

“I just wanted you to hear from me that I tested positive this morning for Covid,” Jackman said in an Instagram video. “My symptoms are like a cold: I have a scratchy throat and a bit of a runny nose, but I’m fine. And I’m just going to do everything I can to get better, A.S.A.P., and as soon as I’m cleared, I’ll be back onstage.”

Shortly after Mr. Jackman posted his video, “The Music Man” announced on Instagram that all performances would be canceled through Saturday. Tickets can be refunded or exchanged where they were purchased. Performances will resume on Sunday, and Mr. Jackman will return to the show on Jan. 6.

Several other Tony winners star in “The Music Man” alongside Mr. Jackman: Sutton Foster as Marian Paroo, Shuler Hensley as Marcellus Washburn, Jefferson Mays as Mayor Shinn, Jayne Houdyshell as Mrs. Shinn and Marie Mullen as Mrs. Paroo.

Preview performances for “The Music Man” began on Dec. 20, with opening night scheduled for Feb. 10.

While “The Music Man” has managed to stay open, other shows have not. The New York City Ballet announced Tuesday that it was canceling its remaining performances of “The Nutcracker.”

The producers of “Ain’t Too Proud,” a jukebox musical about the Temptations, also announced on Tuesday that their show will close on Jan. 16. The show has not run since Dec. 15, citing coronavirus cases. It is planning to resume on Tuesday, Dec. 28, and hoping to run for three more weeks before closing for good.

Last week, the musicals “Jagged Little Pill” and “Waitress,” as well as the play “Thoughts of a Colored Man” announced that they had closed without so much as a farewell performance — all were already on hiatus because of coronavirus cases among cast or crew.

The efforts of “The Music Man” to stay open had just been highlighted on Thursday night, when the actress Kathy Voytko, a swing and an understudy for Marian Paroo in the musical, filled in for Ms. Foster, who had Covid, at the last minute. After the show, the actress and dancer Katherine Winter posted an Instagram video of Mr. Jackman praising understudies and swings as “the bedrock of Broadway.”

“Kathy, when she turned up at work at 12 o’clock, could have played any of eight roles,” Jackman said at the curtain call. “It happened to be the leading lady. She found out at 12 noon today, and at 1 o’clock she had her very first rehearsal as Marian Paroo.”

As the coronavirus and its Omicron variant spread, understudies and swings are becoming more important than ever: Shows are relying on them to step in for sick or unavailable leads.

“This is unprecedented,” Mr. Jackman continued. “It’s not only happening here at the Winter Garden, but all over Broadway. This is a time we’ve never known.”

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Fears of Omicron as an unstoppable threat are tempered by signs of milder symptoms.

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A mall in Freital, Germany, on Tuesday. The country saw widespread protests on Monday night against further coronavirus restrictions.Credit...Daniel Schaefer/dpa-Zentralbild, via Associated Press

The Omicron variant is blazing around the world with such speed that even the leader of Israel, one of the most highly vaccinated countries, warned on Tuesday that it cannot be stopped.

“We can’t prevent it,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, in blunt comments that reflected a growing consensus in nations where Omicron has caught fire: The virus is moving too fast to catch.

That daunting notion — backed up by data from nations where Omicron is spreading rapidly only a month after it was first detected — is tempered by early evidence that the variant causes milder symptoms, with vaccinations and boosters helping prevent serious illness and death.

Many experts worldwide have expressed concern that the sheer number of people who are likely to be infected could create a flood of patients, overwhelming already stressed health care systems. But that is running up against those who argue that it is time to accept that the virus is endemic, and that countries should move away from lockdowns and toward laxer rules including shorter quarantines.

John Bell, a professor of medicine at Oxford University and an adviser to the British government, said that Omicron was “not the same disease we were seeing a year ago.”

“The horrific scenes that we saw a year ago of intensive care units being full, lots of people dying prematurely, that is now history, in my view, and I think we should be reassured that that’s likely to continue,” he told the BBC on Tuesday.

While the latest figures in Britain are incomplete because of the Christmas holiday, data published on Monday indicated that more than 300,000 new Covid cases had been recorded between Saturday and Monday.

But Chris Hopson, the head of N.H.S. Providers, the membership organization for England’s health staff, said that while hospitalizations across Britain had risen, it was not a precipitous jump.

“What’s very interesting is how many are talking about number of asymptomatic patients being admitted to hospital for other reasons and then testing positive for Covid,” he said of conversations with heads of hospitals, in a series of posts on Twitter.

“Some are describing this as ‘incidental Covid.’”

Britain appears to be a few weeks ahead of most other nations in the world in confronting the first wave of Omicron infection and, for the moment, has decided that the evidence does not warrant new restrictions.

But the United Kingdom is hardly united in how to respond to the moment. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all started new curbs this week to slow the spread of Omicron, largely focusing on reducing indoor mixing.

Across Europe, divisions can be seen in how to respond to what Prime Minister Jean Castex of France on Monday called a “film without ending.” His country is seeing a record number of cases, putting extra pressure on intensive care units in public hospitals.

All the tools the world has grown familiar with over the past two years — lockdowns, passes proving vaccination status, limits on private gatherings, mask mandates, social distancing — are being deployed to different degrees across the continent.

And pushback continues to build.

On Monday night, thousands of people took to the streets of Germany to protest new measures under which all nightclubs will be closed, private meetings of more than 10 people will be banned and further restrictions will be put in place on movie theaters and cultural and sporting events.

Isabel Kershner and Christopher F. Schuetze contributed reporting.

The N.F.L. revises its coronavirus protocols after more than 90 players test positive.

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The N.F.L. has changed its Covid protocols to reflect the C.D.C.’s recent shift in isolation recommendations.Credit...Stacy Bengs/Associated Press

The N.F.L. and the N.F.L. Players Association on Tuesday night amended this season’s Covid-19 protocols to mirror new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, halving the amount of time players who test positive for the coronavirus need to isolate regardless of their vaccination status.

In a memo sent to all 32 of the league’s teams, Commissioner Roger Goodell said players infected with the coronavirus — whether vaccinated or unvaccinated — now need to quarantine for only five days, not 10, if their symptoms improve, after the C.D.C. revised its recommendation on Monday. Factors listed in the memo include whether the player’s fever subsided after 24 hours without medication, if their cough improved, and if team and league medical officials determine the player can return to the facility.

The new protocols have drastic implications for the N.F.L., which has struggled to contain a surge of coronavirus cases as the playoffs approach. More than 94 percent of the N.F.L.’s players are vaccinated.

Vaccinated players could clear protocols if they had two negative tests 24 hours apart, but positive tests for unvaccinated players normally led to their missing at least one game under previous rules, and the revised guidelines allow for them to potentially return to the field more quickly.

The amendments follow a string of changes that the N.F.L. put in place this month regarding Covid-19 requirements. After previously testing vaccinated players weekly, the league and the players’ union agreed nearly two weeks ago to test them only when they are considered close contacts or show symptoms. It also mandated that essential staff who interact with players receive booster shots. Asymptomatic vaccinated players can also “test out” of protocols and return to play as soon as 24 hours after a positive test if they are no longer deemed contagious.

But Tuesday’s memo is the first modification of protocols for the unvaccinated, who all season have been subject to stiffer requirements than their inoculated teammates. They are tested daily and must take separate planes to away games, among other things.

The changes come after more than 90 players tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday, nearly one week after the N.F.L. rescheduled three games because of virus outbreaks fueled by the Omicron variant. The United States is averaging over 240,000 cases per day, and the memo recommended that all players and staff avoid social gatherings, bars and restaurants.

In the last off-season, the N.F.L. mandated vaccinations for coaches and essential personnel, saying those who refused would be unable to interact with players. The league stopped short of requiring vaccinations for players, but strongly incentivized it by subjecting players who were not inoculated to stricter protocols.

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Thousands protest in Germany as frustration with Covid rules swells.

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Police officers responding to a demonstration in Dresden, Germany, on Monday.Credit...Matthias Rietschel/Reuters

Demonstrations against Covid rules across Germany on Monday, featuring thousands of marchers, underscored the growing frustration as states prepare to introduce tighter regulations and lawmakers look to introduce mandatory vaccinations.

Rallies on Mondays have had special resonance in Germany since weekly demonstration walks on that day helped bring down the Berlin Wall in 1989.

In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a northeastern state, about 15,000 marchers took part in protests in several cities, according to police estimates. On Monday, the state closed nightclubs, banned private meetings of more than 10 people and placed further restrictions on movie theaters and on cultural and sporting events. Other states imposed similar restrictions on Tuesday as part of an agreement with the federal government to counter an expected rise in infections from the Omicron variant.

Those measures will add to rules targeting particularly the unvaccinated that were introduced as case numbers in Germany rose in the fall.

In Bautzen, a town in the eastern state of Saxony, protesters attacked the police with bottles and fireworks when officers tried to stop a demonstration on Monday, the force said on Twitter.

While most of the rallies occurred in eastern Germany, some sizable demonstrations took place in cities in the west as well. In Saarbrücken and Fulda, in the central state of Hesse, about 1,000 marched. In Wolfsburg, in the northern state of Lower Saxony, 800 turned out.

As Germany braces for Omicron, lawmakers plan to discuss a general vaccine mandate in the opening parliamentary session of 2022. A vaccine requirement for medical workers and care facility employees passed this month and will go into effect in mid-March.

After a renewed emphasis on the national vaccine drive, which included a task force led by an army general, 71 percent of the German population is fully vaccinated and around 44 percent of adults have received a booster shot. But vaccination rates in some states in the east of the country are significantly lower. In Saxony, only 63 percent of the population is fully vaccinated.

The country’s constitutional court also ruled on Tuesday that legislation should be introduced to protect disabled people when hospital resources are stretched. The decision was in response to a suit brought by disability activists more than a year ago and aims to guard against discrimination in triage decisions should hospitals become overwhelmed.

At the moment, hospital admission rates are actually declining in Germany, but during a wave of infections in November, medical centers in some hot spots were forced to transfer patients to other regions to relieve pressure on I.C.U. staff.

A lengthy doctors’ strike over understaffing sparks chaos at New Delhi hospitals.

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A protest over staffing shortages at state-run hospitals in New Delhi called by a doctors’ association on Tuesday.Credit...Adnan Abidi/Reuters

A lengthy doctors’ strike in New Delhi against staffing shortages at state-run hospitals has crippled health services, creating fears of disaster if the Omicron variant overwhelms medical facilities.

Medical students from across India have joined the protests, which intensified two weeks ago and have grown angrier after police officers were seen beating junior doctors during a march on Monday.

The New Delhi government has expressed concern over a rising number of coronavirus cases and announced new measures, including a nighttime curfew, to slow the spread of the virus. While the country’s overall case count remains low, daily infections in the capital region have risen by more than 300 percent over the past two weeks, according to the Our World in Data Project at the University of Oxford. It is unclear how many of the new cases are of the Omicron variant.

As the doctors’ strike has stretched on, drawing in recent graduates and tens of thousands of the more than 70,000 doctors who work at government medical facilities nationwide, emergency health services have been the worst hit.

Videos from major state-run hospitals in New Delhi have shown patients on stretchers lying unattended outside emergency rooms. Many Indians rely on state medical facilities for care because of the high cost of treatment at private hospitals.

The protests were triggered by delays in placing medical school graduates in jobs at government health facilities, as India’s Supreme Court considers an affirmative action policy aimed at increasing the share of positions reserved for underrepresented communities. Protesting doctors say they are not against the quotas, but want the court to expedite its decision so that graduates can begin their jobs.

During India’s catastrophic coronavirus wave earlier this year, doctors and other medical personnel found themselves short-handed and underfunded as they battled an outbreak that at its height was causing 4,000 deaths a day. Doctors associations say that more than 1,500 doctors have died from Covid since the pandemic began.

Protests continued across the country and outside major hospitals in New Delhi on Tuesday, a day after police officers in the capital detained more than 2,500 protesting doctors who were walking toward the residence of India’s health minister.

India’s health ministry said it was saddened over the treatment of doctors during the protest on Monday, but said it could not proceed with job placements while the issue was being heard in the country’s top court.

Dr. Suvrankar Datta, an official for the Federation of All India Medical Association, a doctors’ group that supports the strike, said as coronavirus cases rise in New Delhi and other parts of the country, there will not be enough doctors to handle the crisis.

“We have already communicated to the government so many times that the health care infrastructure is understaffed like never before,” he said. If graduates are not placed in jobs quickly, he added, it creates “a completely catastrophic situation when cases rise.”

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New Year’s Day charity swims are being canceled around the world.

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Last year’s Loony Dook New Year’s Eve cold water swim in Edinburgh. That swim, like many other such New Year’s events, will not take place on Saturday because of surging coronavirus cases.Credit...Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Beaches that normally spring back to life for cold-water plunges on Jan. 1 may remain deserted, as annual New Year’s Day fund-raising swims have become yet another casualty of the Omicron variant.

The swims are a quirky tradition in many Western countries, requiring participants to enter frigid waters to raise money for charity.

But the emergence of Omicron — the highly transmissible variant that is now fueling record surges around the world — has shuttered a range of cultural institutions, from New Year’s Eve celebrations to Broadway shows. And now, largely because of Omicron, some of the world’s most daring — and charitable — swimmers will be kept out of the waters on New Year’s Day.

The status of the charity swims are a reflection of the world’s patchwork approach to Covid restrictions. For some organizers, the cancellations were a yes-or-no decision, while others were inching toward Jan. 1 with contingency plans if the Covid situation worsened.

Many of the North American events are still on, though some will have Covid guidelines. At Coney Island in New York, the New Year’s Day Plunge was set to go on as planned. But at one Seattle event, swimmers must wear masks and have a booster shot.

In Canada, a slate of events have been canceled in Ontario and in British Columbia. But participants in Vancouver and Oakville, Ontario, could still take a “digital dip” by sending a picture of themselves in a snowbank or a kiddie pool.

Swim events on Achill Island in Ireland and in the The Hague were canceled. But in County Wicklow, Ireland, and Catalonia, Spain, charity swims were tentatively moving forward.

In the United Kingdom, where the charity swims are a beloved remedy after New Year’s Eve revelries, events were on in North Yorkshire, England, but off in Edinburgh, Scotland, and in Pembrokeshire, Wales, among other places.

“We are deeply disappointed,” the organizers of the Tenby Boxing Day Swim in Wales said. “Covid wins again.”

For teams playing in college bowls, the toughest opponent this season is the coronavirus.

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Houston wide receiver Jake Herslow celebrates with offensive lineman Kody Russey after scoring a touchdown against Auburn during the second half of the Birmingham Bowl, Dec. 28.Credit...Butch Dill/Associated Press

Almost four weeks ago, in an apparent fit of optimism, the N.C.A.A. approved the creation of a 42nd bowl game so that every eligible football team with an even record or better would have a postseason game.

Never mind that the calendar already overflowed with bowls. The late birth of the one-time Frisco Football Classic set up the Miami (Ohio) Redhawks to play North Texas.

It was fortunate the game was contested when it was: By the time the Redhawks won, 27-14, two days before Christmas, the bowl season had fallen into chaos.

That day, Texas A&M withdrew from the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., temporarily leaving Wake Forest without an opponent. Miami — the one in Florida — was warning that its participation in the Sun Bowl was in doubt because of the virus. And the College Football Playoff said its four teams risked forfeiting if they were not ready to play on time.

The situation has only worsened since, as more outbreaks have led to more withdrawals and more reshuffling.

All told, games have been canceled or reimagined from Honolulu to Boston, and it is anyone’s guess how many more will be affected by the time a national champion is crowned on Jan. 10 in Indianapolis — if, in fact, one is crowned.

“It’s just déjà vu all over again of what we had last year,” Greg McGarity, the Gator Bowl’s chief executive, said in an interview on Tuesday. “The weird thing was, when the bowls were announced on Dec. 5, Covid wasn’t even a factor.”

“Everybody thought that we were over the hump as far as that goes,” he continued, “and then Omicron hit and here we are again.”

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Omicron is not more severe for children, despite rising hospitalizations.

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Covid hospitalizations are rising for children, most likely because of a combination of lower vaccination rates and the Omicron variant.Credit...Paul Ratje for The New York Times

Even though the Omicron variant has produced a worrisome increase in hospitalizations among children in the United States, experts said that a combination of factors, including low vaccination rates, was the most likely explanation.

Doctors and researchers said they were not seeing evidence that Omicron was more threatening to children. Instead, much of the rise in pediatric admissions results from the sheer number of children who are becoming infected with both Delta and the more contagious Omicron variant, experts said, as well as low vaccination rates among children over 5.

“I think the important story to tell here is that severity is way down and the risk for significant severe disease seems to be lower,” said Dr. David Rubin, a researcher at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Preliminary data suggests that compared with the Delta variant, Omicron appears to be causing milder illness in children, similar to early findings for adults.

That data, however, has not alleviated anxiety among parents nationwide, as caseloads in children have risen in several states.

A number of states have reported increases of about 50 percent in pediatric admissions for Covid-19 in December. New York City has experienced the most significant rise, with 68 children hospitalized last week, a fourfold jump from two weeks earlier.

Children overall are somewhat less protected from the virus than adults. Younger children do not yet qualify for vaccination, and only those age 16 and older qualify for booster shots, which offer the most effective shield against infection and hospitalization.

In the week ending Dec. 23, about 199,000 childhood cases were reported nationally, a 50 percent increase compared with the beginning of December, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Roughly one in 10 American children has tested positive for the virus since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the academy.

Infected children remain far less likely to become ill, compared with adults. But across the country last week, an average of 1,200 children each day have been hospitalized with the coronavirus, up from 800 at the end of November, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. (Some of those children arrived at the hospital with other medical issues.)

Those numbers are well below the peaks reached last September, although experts also fear a wave of pediatric hospitalizations in the coming weeks, fueled by Omicron’s spread, holiday gatherings and a return to classrooms after Jan. 1.

“We’re just holding our breath and bracing for a tsunami of impact,” said Dr. Patricia Manning, the chief of staff at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

Delta Air Lines blames new cleaning rules in Shanghai for the midair turnaround of a flight from Seattle.

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Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport has instituted a new cleaning policy that Delta management said is not “operationally viable” for the airline.Credit...Alex Plavevski/EPA, via Shutterstock

A Delta Air Lines flight that was en route from Seattle to Shanghai turned back in midair last week because the Chinese airport had imposed new cleaning rules that would have caused delays, the airline said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The new cleaning procedures require significantly extended ground time and are not operationally viable for Delta,” the airline said.

Details of the new cleaning regulations in place at Shanghai Pudong International Airport were not immediately clear, but China has rolled out increasingly strict Covid-19 travel rules amid a growing outbreak in the northern city of Xian and before the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February.

The scrapped flight left passengers with out-of-date Covid-19 test results and expired U.S. visas, according to Chinese news reports. The Chinese Consulate in San Francisco, which did not name Delta, said in a statement that it “had made a stern representation to the airline.”

The new sanitation protocols also led EVA Air of Taiwan to suspend passenger services to Shanghai Pudong from the cities of Taipei and Kaohsiung until Feb. 3, Taiwan’s semiofficial Central News Agency reported. Another Taiwan-based carrier, China Airlines, is suspending flights from one city to Shanghai until the end of January and reducing flights on another route, according to news reports.

The Chinese Embassy in the United States said in a statement that reports that the Delta plane had been turned around because of a ban on incoming flights were incorrect. Many domestic and international flights in the United States had been canceled because of staff shortages, the embassy noted, adding that it was “communicating with relevant airlines to actively understand the specific technical issues and discuss solutions to avoid similar incidents from happening again.”

The outbreak in Xian remains small by global standards. On Tuesday, Global Times, a Communist Party tabloid in China, said that the city of 13 million people, where the local authorities last week imposed a lockdown, had reported 175 cases in one day, its highest daily count since the outbreak began this month.

In total, 810 cases have been recorded in Xian.

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Cities around the world pare back New Year celebrations, again.

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Striking a pose with the 2022 sign in Times Square this month.Credit...John Taggart for The New York Times

As the Omicron variant drives positivity rates to their highest levels of the pandemic in many parts of the world, major cities have scaled down or canceled New Year’s Eve events for a second consecutive year.

Only months ago, expanding Covid vaccinations and loosening travel rules had promised a return of raucous New Year gatherings amid hopes that the pandemic might finally be waning. But the emergence of Omicron — the highly transmissible variant that is now dominant in the United States and fueling record surges in many nations — has prompted governments to reinstate travel restrictions, mask mandates and bans on large gatherings.

Even as early studies suggest that Omicron produces less severe illness, experts warn that the staggering caseload could still overwhelm health systems. A number of Dec. 31 events have been canceled in countries where caseloads are rising swiftly, including in Italy, where the 14-day average of new cases is up 128 percent, and in France, where cases are up by 48 percent, according to the Our World in Data Project at the University of Oxford.

In the United States, where daily cases have doubled over the past two weeks, some events have been canceled, but the annual celebration in Times Square in New York will go on, with attendance capped at 15,000.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, recommended on Monday that people “stay away” from large New Year’s Eve parties, especially when it is not clear who has been vaccinated. Speaking on CNN, Dr. Fauci said, “There will be other years to do that, but not this year.”

As another 12 months living with the pandemic draws to a close, here’s a look at how Omicron has forced some cities to change their plans for Dec. 31:

New York City

Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a downsizing of the celebration in Times Square to at most 15,000 guests, nearly a quarter of the usual amount, who will be allowed in at 3 p.m. at the earliest. Attendees will be required to wear masks and show proof of full vaccination. Fox canceled its “New Year’s Eve Toast & Roast 2022” live broadcast from Times Square. The network said in a statement that “the recent velocity of the spread of Omicron cases has made it impossible to produce a live special in Times Square that meets our standards.”

Los Angeles

Several Los Angeles County holiday events have been canceled, including the New Year’s countdown in Grand Park, which will now be streamed.

Seattle

For the second year in a row, there will be no crowds allowed at the Space Needle’s fireworks show. People can watch on a livestream instead.

London

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, announced last week that the New Year’s Eve event in Trafalgar Square was canceled, saying: “The safety of Londoners must come first.”

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In London last week.Credit...Andrew Testa for The New York Times

Paris

Paris has canceled its celebration, which was to include fireworks over the Champs-Élysées. Prime Minister Jean Castex also announced that large public parties would be banned on New Year’s Eve.

Rome

Celebrations have been scrapped in several Italian cities, including Rome and Venice. Outdoor events have been banned and nightclubs will be closed for the month of January.

Berlin

Berlin’s annual New Year’s Eve party at the Brandenburg Gate will go on, but without any audience members. The performances will be live on television. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has also announced that gatherings will be limited to a maximum of 10 people starting Dec. 28.

Tokyo

Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo typically attracts tens of thousands of people for one of the biggest New Year celebrations in the world. This year, like last year, the revelry has been called off. Public drinking has been banned in Shibuya on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.

New Delhi

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority has banned all social, political and cultural gatherings, including Christmas and New Year celebrations, according to The Economic Times newspaper. Restaurants and bars are allowed to operate only at half capacity.

Cape Town

Cape Town is still allowing New Year’s Eve gatherings, but several restrictions are in place. There is a curfew from 12 a.m. to 4 a.m., masks are required in public areas and nightclubs are closed.

Casablanca

The authorities banned New Year’s Eve celebrations throughout the country, including in Casablanca, Morocco’s most populous city. Restaurants will close 30 minutes before midnight, and there will be a curfew from midnight to 6 a.m.

Kampala

The national police force on Monday announced a ban on New Year’s Eve fireworks across the country, including in Kampala, Uganda’s capital. Nighttime religious services will also be prohibited.

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