Solene Delinger
, modified at
7:41 p.m., December 23, 2021
The Scientific Council is sounding the alarm. At a press conference on Thursday, he said the Omicron variant could quickly become the majority in France, and said he expected there to be “hundreds of thousands of cases per day in January”. A meteoric spread that could “disorganize” society.
After a month of December marked by an increase in contamination, will January be the month of an explosion in Covid-19 cases? On Christmas Eve, the Scientific Council was in any case particularly worried about the meteoric spread of the Omicron variant, much more contagious than the Delta. Council members said at a press conference on Thursday that they expected “hundreds of thousands of cases” in January 2022. An explosion that could “disrupt” society.
Multiplication of sick leaves
While contaminations are already at an unprecedented level, with 84,272 new cases confirmed on Wednesday, Professor Arnaud Fontanet, member of the Scientific Council, declared that the Omicron variant was “in the majority in Ile-de-France” and that it ” would become nationwide by the end of the year “. We must therefore prepare for a new outbreak of cases in January, several hundred thousand, with, as a result, a “general disorganization” of society for all strategic sectors (supermarkets, transport, hospital, school …). The Council indeed fears the multiplication of work stoppages and “absenteeism”.
According to this body, it could become necessary to lighten the isolation rules to limit this disorganization. Especially since two British studies published Wednesday say that the Omicron variant is much less dangerous than the Delta variant, with 20 to 30% less risk of hospitalization.
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Lufthansa cuts 33,000 flights
The airline Lufthansa has already announced that it is cutting 10% of its flights this winter due to the spread of the Omicron variant. “We see a sharp drop in bookings from mid-January to February”, which is why “we have to cancel 33,000 flights, or around 10% of the winter flight schedule,” said Carsten Spohr, CEO of Lufthansa, in an interview with the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS). For its part, Ryanair has warned that its annual loss would probably be double what it expected, due to this new variant.