Govit-19, Vaccine and Omigron News: Live Announcements

As many made their maiden voyage in almost two years, the United States on Monday showed some signs of easing sanctions, and the country’s leading epidemiologist, Dr. Anthony S. Fauzi raised the possibility of an airborne vaccine requirement. Travel.

At least 2,400 flights were canceled on Monday, including about 900 US flights, as the highly contagious Omigron variant sends daily cassettes to parts of the United States. Rises to levels The epidemic of last winter is greater than the peak.

Although the cancellations were only a small percentage of the overall flights, the problem threatened to extend the holiday week.

“If you make the vaccine a necessity, it is another incentive to vaccinate more people,” Dr. Fancy Said On MSNBC on Monday. “If you want to do that on domestic flights, I think it’s something to seriously consider.”

Over the holiday weekend, airlines canceled thousands of flights as the Omicron variant hit flight crews. In all, about 2,300 U.S. flights were canceled on Saturday and Sunday over the Christmas holiday weekend, and more than 3,500 landed worldwide. According to FlightAware, Which provides flight data. On Sunday alone, more than 1,300 US flights and 1,700 additional flights worldwide were canceled.

Despite some landings due to bad weather and maintenance issues, many airlines have acknowledged significant contributions to the current corona virus cases. A Jet Blue spokesman said: “The airline has seen a large number of sick calls from Omigron.”

According to FlightAware, 12 per cent of Jet Blue flights, 6 per cent of Delta Airlines flights, 5 per cent of United Airlines flights and 2 per cent of American Airlines flights were canceled.

FlightAware said Southwest Airlines had canceled 68 flights, or 1 percent. Due to the weather, Southwest spokesman Dan Landson said. “We have no operational issues related to Govt,” he said in an email.

United, Delta, American and Southwest stock prices – four The biggest U.S. carriers – less than 1 percent on Monday.

This year’s travel has skyrocketed, worsening the situation at airports: about two million people went through screening checkpoints every day last week, According to the Traffic Safety Administration, And Sunday. The number of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was higher than last year, and some figures were higher than the same two years ago, with almost no Americans aware of the spread of a virus around the world.

There are indications that the worst cancellations in the United States are over. Delta, for example, expected to cancel about 200 flights on Sunday, down from the 300 it had predicted a day earlier, a spokesman said. Predicts 40 will be canceled on Monday alone.

Airlines, on the other hand, expect a lot of flights on Sunday, January 2nd. The Omicron variant, which is now responsible for more than 70 percent of new corona virus cases in the United States, has already helped push the daily case average above 200,000 in the United States for the first time in almost 12 months. According to the New York Times Corona virus tracker.

There is an airline trade group He asked Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should reduce the recommended isolation period from 10 days to a maximum of five days, i.e. 10 days, before returning with a negative test for fully vaccinated staff.

“The CDC’s quick and safe changes will ease the pressure on at least a few employees and set up flights to help millions of passengers return from their vacation,” said JetBlue spokesman Derek Dombrowski.

However, the flight attendants’ association argued that reducing the recommended isolation hours should be “determined by public health professionals, not airlines.”

Late this weekend there was little to no contact with some of the infections. Alaska Airlines has established a comprehensive plan to keep employees healthy and has even entered its board of directors who have been trained as team members, spokeswoman Alexa Rutin said.

On Saturdays and Sundays, it contained only a few cancellations related to the group’s exposure to the corona virus, according to Ms Rutin. Nevertheless, according to FlightAver, it canceled 170 flights in those two days, including 21 percent of its Sunday flights, due to unusually cold and snowy weather in the Pacific Northwest, affecting its hub Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

In New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is dealing with an increase in positive lawsuits among its employees. But the tunnel service on Monday is running on a regular schedule, with scattered exceptions, said Demetrius Crichlow, senior vice president for tunnels.