New Delhi: The newly mutated Covid-19 strain, the Omicron variant, is now the dominant strain of Covid-19 in the US, according to health authorities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that Omicron accounts for 73.2 percent of new Covid-19 cases in the US, over the past week ending Saturday.
Omicron accounts for more than 90 percent of new infections in regions such as the Pacific Northwest, South, and parts of the Midwest.
Some countries have reimposed travel restrictions and closed down international borders due to the surge in Covid-19 cases resulting from Omicron.
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However, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Monday said that US President Joe Biden does not plan on "locking the country down", AFP reports.
Omicron has been detected in 89 countries as of Saturday, December 18, according to the WHO. Tedros Adhanom, Director-General of the WHO, urged nations to redouble efforts to help end the pandemic and called for new year events to be cancelled.
This is because it was better to "celebrate later than to celebrate now and grieve later," the AFP report quoted him as saying. He also said: "We have to focus now on ending this pandemic."
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India has recorded a total of 163 Omicron cases as of Monday, December 20, according to media reports.